Graeme Ogston continues his tour of Dundee’s City of Culture rivals, turning his attention to Leicester.
The second stage of the journey was proving as frustrating as the previous one when it came to quizzing locals about their knowledge of Dundee.
“I can’t say it’s ever crossed my mind to go to Dundee, “ said the first person I asked in Leicester. “I’ve been to Edinburgh though,” he added, by way of consolation.
Finally, there was a breakthrough.
“I moved here from Malawi 35 years ago, so I know of the two Okhai brothers from my country who moved to Dundee and took over Keiller’s” said my taxi driver, as I punched the air for a proper answer.
The jubilation was short-lived. I approached a businessman in leafy New Walk with high hopes that he would be full of City of Discovery facts and figures.
“Dundee? It’s near Newcastle.” he said. I pointed out that Dundee was more than 150 miles away from Newcastle.
He thought for a moment.
“Well, it’s in Scotland then (correct), it has a couple of football clubs (well done) and its one of four Scottish cities (one of seven, actually).
After stopping a few more people at the Richard III exhibition and beside De Montford Hall, I had collected notes largely consisting of the words “cake” and “football”.
Maybe Hull, the nearest city to home and the last stop on the trip, would bear fruit…