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.

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, and deposit said car safe in the knowledge that the rest of the day is yours. Or, 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.

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!

Remember how I mentioned the profusion of all things rat-like? Well the guide-book from the tourist office (which incidentally was very good) has a map with all the major points of interest marked on it. These follow what is called...wait for it...the rat trail. Yes indeed, just when you thought it was safe to go down in the sewers, up pop those beady-eyed rats from every orifice. Actually, the rats in question are just little painted signs on the ground. Simply follow the little rodents around and you can soak up the history of the town while you're at it.
Suffering from a lack of rats? Don't worry, at almost every street corner there are human-sized statues of rats. But not ordinary rats (like human-sized rats are ordinary). Oh no, these are rats in all forms of fancy-dress. There are punk rockers, school teachers, policerats, pirates...the list goes on.

Me? I couldn't give a rat's arse for legends, but I do enjoy medieval and middle-age architecture so instead of looking down at little rat figures, I was looking up at the intricate façades of the many half-timbered, and sandstone buildings. The style is called Weser-Renaissance. But even here it was hard to escape the legend. Buildings like the Rat Catcher's house are adorned with inscriptions relating to the piper and his friends.

Although it's the most important town for shopping in the local area, i wasn't overly impressed. I would describe it as fairly standard, and souvenir wise it was actually quite poor with not much to be had, legend-orientated-tat aside.