More than 800 years is a long time to wait.
But, finally, many centuries after this city was born by Royal Charter, Dundee has come of age.
This fabulous place has a new gem in V&A Dundee and is Scotland’s black sheep no longer.
Nestled on an outcrop at Craig Harbour, V&A Dundee is a grown-ups playground the likes of which you rarely see outwith global mega-cities such as London and New York.
And, if the unprecedented global media attention is any real yardstick, the world is desperate to see inside.
I was privileged to get a sneak peek tour and I couldn’t help but smile.
Not just at the fabulous exhibits on show – Ocean Liners: Speed and Style is worth an afternoon of anyone’s time – but at how far the city of my birth has come.
Dundee has changed enormously in recent decades; socially, economically, attitudinally and culturally it is a city reborn.
But all that progress – in fact, almost everything that has come before – pales in comparison with the opening of the V&A. It is the diamond atop the cluster.
Think Sydney and the Opera House springs immediately to mind.
Pisa is synonymous with its leaning tower, Paris the Eiffel, Rome the Pantheon and Colosseum and there’s the Empire State Building in New York.
But outwith Edinburgh and a few other picturesque castles, there are seldom few Scottish landmarks that resonate globally.
And even fewer that speak of a contemporary, striving Scotland.
Dundee is now home to that very thing. It has a modern, design-led icon to call its own and of which to be hugely proud.
I have admired Kengo Kuma’s concrete-clad masterpiece from afar for many months.
But stepping into the space for the first time delivered a multi-sensory overload that drew my breath – and that of many of the supposedly-cynical multi-national media pack that had gathered for the big reveal.
For beyond the exterior lies beauty, function and form in every nook and cranny.
It is a building that packs punch – just idling awhile people-watching over a coffee is an experience I will return to time and again.
But venture further and you’ll find some of the finest curated exhibition spaces in the UK where the untold story of Scotland’s incredible design history is brought to life.
I was impressed but I was far from alone in being so.
After eight centuries, the world isn’t just watching Dundee, it is shooting envious glances at this city.
And brilliantly, from what I saw, V&A Dundee is good enough to hold that gaze.
