Hameln Favorites

Favorite thing: Hameln Marketing und Tourismus GmbH
Deisterallee, 1
D-31785 Hameln

Internet:
- www.hameln.de (English and Deutsch) or
- www.alemania-turismo.com/pages/city_hameln.html (spanish)

E mail: touristinfo@hameln.de

Favorite thing: This is a small city not far from Hannover, it is really nice place and if you are around, go to visit.

The official city site (also in English)
www.hameln.de

Fondest memory: The people, our new friends that we met there and hosted us so nicely.

Favorite thing: The building of 1602 was home of the famous Pied Piper. The architectural style is called Weserrenaissance, a typical style of the 17th century in the region along the Weser River.
According to a legend the Pied Piper was fluting all rats out of town. The government didn't want to pay him for his work so he were fluting all kids out of town.
Today, you can watch every weekend the Pied Piper fluting all of the rats out of town. Seems the government decided better ro pay.

Favorite thing: all these houses out of the 16th and 17th century are especially famous for their distinctive gables and overhanging windows. In the whole region around the Weser here in the norht of Germany you find houses like these, but in Hameln are much more "concentrated".

Favorite thing: Famous houses in Hameln built in the Weser-Renaissance-style are the "Hochzeitshaus" (1610-17), the "Dempterhaus" (1607/08) , the "Leisthaus" (1585-89) (see picture: Lucretia), "Stiftsherrenhaus" (1558) and the "Rattenfängerhaus" (1602/03). The "Rieckesche Haus" ("Rattenkrug") from 1568 was the first house built in the Weser-Renaissance-style in Hameln

Favorite thing: and of course for the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Here´s the story about it:

It was the year 1284 when a strange and wondrous figure arrived in Hameln. He was attired in a coat of many colours and pretending to be a rat catcher he promised to free the town of a plague of rats and mice for a fixed sum of money.

The citizens pledged to pay him his fee, so the visitor produced a pipe and began to play. And soon all the rats and mice came running out of the houses and gathered around the Pied Piper in a teeming mass. Once convinced that each and every one followed, he went out of the town straight into the River Weser where the vermin plunged after him and drowned.

The townspeople, however, now freed of the plague, regretted their promise and refused to pay the Piper who left Hameln in a bitter mood.

On the 26th of June in that year he returned, this time dressed as a huntsman, with a grim visage, a wondrous red hat. While the townsfolk were assembled in the church, he again sounded his pipe in the streets

But it was not rats and mice who came out this time, but the children! A great many boys and girls older than four came running and were led through the Ostertor gate into the very heart of a hill where they all disappeared. Only two children returned because they could not keep up: one was blind and could not show where the others had gone, the other dumb and not able to tell the secret. A last little boy had come back to fetch his coat and so escaped the calamity. Some tell that the children were led into a great cavern and reappeared in Transylvania. A total of 130 children were lost.

Favorite thing: The market is located in the old part of Hameln and surrounded by many beautiful houses in Wesser Renaissance style!*

We did not have much time to visit but managed to see the old center as we still had a long way to drive to Brussels.

Anyway, even if it was a rainy and cold day, I found the place extremely charming.

Maybe it was that strange legend and the rat trails painted on the street that had something to do with my mood :-)

Favorite thing: As Hameln is a popular daytrip destination, the city's infrastructure is equipped to cope with big numbers of visitors.

Public toilets is one of the those.

You find them at the Europa Platz.