The Pied Piper lives!

The tale of the Pied Piper Of Hamelyn is about a mythical musician who was charged with ridding the town of rats by charming them to follow his music to their death in a river. When the mayor reneged on his fee for this service, he took revenge by charming all bar one of the towns children to follow him where he imprisoned them. Frankly that does not seen all bad to me, personally it would have saved me a fortune, but I digress. Last night, That Nice Lady Decorator was thrilled to arrive in Hamelyn as it was her favourite girlhood fairy story. Indeed so was I happy as the town is a beautifully maintained unspoilt medieval masterpiece. Street after street in the old town covered in wonderful brightly decorated timber-framed houses with mostly cobbled streets between. Regular readers will know that I am not a fan of modern architecture.

Typical German houses that were not bombed

So finding a hotel in the centre of the old town was a result and we busied ourself for a lively evening. However, it seems that the Piper must have been at work again. It was a Friday night, was not raining, there were scores of restaurants, many, particularly in the wide main drag, still with tables and chairs outside, but no people. It was a but uncanny. Many of the restaurants, and I am talking big ones with a hundred covers plus, were completely empty at 8pm on a Friday. There are more people out and about in Valbonne on a wet evening in January.

Anyway, we were not down hearted and quartered the town looking for some life. There was one Italian restaurant with a dozen or so people on it, but determined not to give up in our search for something typically German and atmospheric but 20 minutes later we ended up in a Mexican restaurant which was nearly half full, so obviously the place to be.

Earlier we had at last found some of the typically quaint villages from where the Brothers Grimm had plagiarised their stories. Apparently, all they did was to collect up and compile all the best local fairy tales and call them their own. A bit like the modern-day music world where people steal old ideas and call them original. It has given us an excuse to visit some of these very pretty places which are still attractive despite the distinctly dodgy weather as I hope my picture today captures. Amongst the highlights were Hann Munden and Boderwerder but there were half a dozen others which had some nice areas.

One disappointing fact about Germany is the backward nature of their mobile telephone networks. The lack of ability to receive emails through much of the country for much of the time is surprising as in France and Italy, the data roaming facilities are far superior. One might has suspected that the industrial powerhouse of Europe, which has single-handedly supported that dead duck, the euro, for years, would be more advanced than their profligate southern cousins, but that is not the case, This has had the effect of detracting from my vital work with Currencies Direct and a music business deal in which I am involved.. Clearly I am never 100% on holiday, work is omnipresent in my life. Luckily I am able to disguise that fact extremely well.

So today we will continue the Grimm adventure with the eventual aim of reaching Hanover by evening in readiness for a 59th birthday party in the town in Sunday. Then on Monday we can escape back to the land of sunshine in the sultry south of France for some late summer sunshine to steel myself for another winter in England.

Chris France
@Valbonne_News