The Pied Piper & Cinderella

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This morning we wanted to discover the town of Hameln of Pied Piper fame. No that’s not a typo – they leave off the ‘i’ in German.

Hameln has some beautiful examples of old style ½ timber houses – stone foundations with timber frames and rendered brick infill panels. Many have ornately carved doorways and panels and date from the 15^th & 16^th centuries.

In the markt square is the town hall with its bell glockenspiel – dozens of bells that play music (not just bell chimes) at certain times of the day.

As it warmed up, we finally coaxed Em out of the carrier to follow the little bronze plaques of rats in the cobblestones. She was so wrapped up in finding the next rat that she frequently had other people dodging around her or out of her way!

Some of the oldest religious buildings must have had cemeteries around them that have been built over now but some of the old headstones have now been built into or attached to the walls of the cathedrals and churches.

We found the tourist bureau and got some proper information on the Fairy tale route that we are supposedly following. Turns out the info we found online is a bit sketchy but the brochure we got filled in many of the blanks and shows where some of the most popular fairy tales are from.

We found a park which has outdoor swimming pools (all empty at this time of year) and a small playground. That kept Em amused for about 1 ½ hours and we had a nice lunch in the park watching the bumblebees.

We followed the little bronze rats around the rest of town and Em even found a bronze hopscotch panel in the middle of the markt square.

Driving back to Polle, we went up to the ruined castle on the hill. This was apparently the castle of Cinderella fame and it even has the slipper by the castle wall too. Em had a try but she needs to grow into it yet, so we put her chained her to the whipping post by the castle entry instead! Unfortunately, most of the attractions along the route don’t open until Easter and this was no exception, so we couldn’t go inside but it made a good impression from outside anyway.

Back to our apartment for roast veges and gravy which we have been craving then we went out for an evening stroll. Polle is only a cosy little village so we ended up at the ferry crossing below the old castle. Em was fascinated by the boat taking the cars and motorbikes across.

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Photos

The Slipper
Still a bit of room to grow into this one