by Andrew H Brown

Created on: March 23, 2007   Last Updated: January 06, 2010

I would imagine that everybody's heard of Hamelin, or to give it its more correct, German spelling, Hameln. At least, I should think everyone's familiar with the legend of The Pied Piper of Hameln.

The town lies around 50km south of Hanover in the state of Lower Saxony, northern Germany. It straddles the Weser river and is the cultural and economic capital of the Weser area. In fact the town owes its prosperity through the ages to the Weser river and the trade that passed along it. This led to local merchants building some elaborately decorated houses which have survived to this day and are one of the main attractions of a visit here.

Approaching Hameln you could be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is all about. A series of drab suburbs does nothing to excite the newly arrived. However, at the edge of the inner ring road, there's a large park and the visitor centre. If you're sensible, you'll turn right here, drive the 1-200m towards the Rathaus (town hall) where you'll find a car park. You can then deposit said car safe in the knowledge that the rest of the day is yours. Or, like a fool, you could drive into the old town's narrow, one-way streets, eventually find a spot to park, then discover that the parking meters only allow 30 minutes at a time. I recommend the former.

Hameln's not very big - there are around 60,000 inhabitants, but they're mostly dispersed throughout the many suburbs - so it doesn't take an awful long time to fully explore it. The booklet we were given in the tourist office actually states that you can 'do' the town in an hour. Not being in a rush, we decided to stretch it out a little longer than that.

Unsurprisingly, for a town where the main claim to fame is about some guy wearing funny clothes, whistling on a flute and being followed by plague of rats or some humans of the immature variety (sounds a bit like an Orange Walk in Airdrie), there are pointers to the legend at every conceivable point. Obviously, nearly every shop sells some sort of rat-based thingummybob, from tiny badges, through baked goods, to cuddly toys...and everything in-between. Pied piper figurines are not forgotten though. After all, he's more famous than the rats!

The old town is a circular shape, the boundaries being formed by the inner ring road and the Weser river. The main streets form a sort of cross with the Marktkirche St Nicholai (market church) roughly in the centre - most of these streets are pedestrianised making for a pleasant, traffic-free stroll.

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