Ausflug: The Village of the Pied Piper

While my mom and sister were visiting, we rented a car and drove into the Harz Mountains, the home of many German fairy tales and the brothers Grimm. On our way, we stopped in Hameln, home of the Pied Piper story. Although we visited as part of a much longer trip, Hameln is only a couple hours from Cologne, so it's very day-trip-able.

The Altstadt includes a self-guided tour via rat cobblestones. It leads you along cute shopping streets, and to the Ratten­fängerhaus, aka House of the Rat Catcher, which is now a restaurant and guest house.

An inscription high on its walls reads:

“In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul, the 26th of June, 130 children born in Hameln were deceived by a piper dressed in many colors, and lost at the calvary near the koppen." (not sure what the calvary or koppen are--perhaps a local landmark?)

Several fountains and paintings of the legend can be found along the 'rat trail,' as well as rat-themed goods in many shops (rat's "poison" in the perfume shop, rat-shaped pastries at the bakery, wooden pipes at the souvenir shop).

You follow the trail further to the Hochzeithaus (literally, "wedding house" or "high time" house, a venue for festivals and events), where at exactly 9:35 and 11:35 every day, you can see a very special glockenspiel. It begins with the sound of a haunting pipe melody, and then the doors open to reveal the piper leading a huge swarm of rats!

The music stops momentarily, then the piping begins again. This time, the piper emerges with the town's children following behind him, just like in the legend.

This was one of the cleverest glockenspiels I have seen in Germany. It turns out that in the 1200s, over a hundred children did disappear from the town (though records don't indicate that rats or a piper were involved). Although there are many theories, the event is unexplained to this day. We've been watching the TV show, Grimm, and we have read some of Grimm's (gruesome) fairytales, so it was neat to visit the home of one of the legends.

More about the rest of our trip soon!