Once, when we were driving in the French countryside with Jacques and Maggie, one of us enquired as to the kind of crop growing in the fields speeding by.
“Mustard”, came Jacques reply, “Mustard of Dijon” of the vast fields of red-leafed vegetable. It transpired that during his years as a tourist skipper, that was his standard reply to any vegetation related question. “Tourists don’t want to know” he explained, “They just want an answer.”
Therefore when the pilot of a tourist boat told us that the buildings facing what was once the principal port in Gent have sloping facades to facilitate loading into the upper floors, (and perhaps to save a bit on “land tax”), we maintained a cautious skepticism, although it was nice to know that it wasn’t just the diffraction of our camera lens. Discovery of the truth regarding that, and the answers to so many more questions, will have to wait until our next, and perhaps even subsequent visits, for tomorrow we will move on, our experience of this city akin to watching a movie trailer for a blockbuster that we must not miss.
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