Bruges and Ghent

Another row is brewing between Bruges and Ghent.

Ghent has launched a publicity campaign in which it uses a sentence out of National Geographic Traveler Magazine : "A wonderful mix of a living city and a vibrant past Much more real than lovely Bruges, just up the road. Local people cherish the character of this medieval city, yet there's not a mono-economy of tourism."

The sentence comes out of last November's issue of the forementioned magazine, which sent its "highly acclaimed travel experts" to rate 109 destinations, and who listed the historic city center of Ghent in the third place".

Some remarks :

- I live in Ghent ; I have spent almost 65 years in this wonderful city ;

- rows have been a very common way of communicating between these two cities since the early Middle Ages ;

- the quote from NGTM is purely superficial American horse manure and it is a shame that our city council takes that seriously ;

- the ranking itself is statistical goobledegook, as I have explained in a previous post in november 2008 or thereabouts.

Both cities are worth a visit, but let us not forget that your average French or Italian village has more authentic monuments from for instance and the 11th of 12th century that our two bella donnas.

A little bit of modesty and mutual understanding would go a long way.

2 comments:

pablo said...

Now I may well be banished from Ghent ...

pablo said...

De Gentse burgemeester heeft de campagne doen stopzetten.