Everyone knows the story, and in Hameln you cannot get away from it. In 1284, according to the legend, a stranger in a coloured coat came to town to rid it of rats with his pipe, was cheated of his fee, and led the children away instead. The tale is probably built on some real event, maybe an emigration or a catastrophe, but nobody knows which. The town has embraced it with enthusiasm: rats in the shop windows, rat-shaped bread, a summer play staged in the street and a mechanical glockenspiel show at the Hochzeitshaus that draws a crowd every day.
Beyond the legend, Hameln is a handsome river town with some of the best Weser Renaissance architecture in Germany, a style from around 1600 marked by elaborate gables, carved bay windows and rich ornament. The Rattenfängerhaus, the house of the Rat-catcher, has a famous facade. Streets around the centre are pedestrianised, and a stroll takes you from the market to the Weser embankment, where the river flows broad and calm and excursion boats tie up in summer.
For a stop, this is simple. The river is the point: sit on the bank or on a terrace with a drink and watch barges and rowing boats. Locals sometimes call this part of the Weser a riviera when the sun is out, with some irony, but on a warm day people do lie on the grass.
With nearly sixty thousand people, Hameln has every service: fuel, supermarkets, restaurants and cafés in profusion. Parking a motorcycle near the centre is possible, though the cobbles in the old streets are uneven and slippery after rain, and in summer the tour groups can make the lanes feel tight. Arriving from the hills, the road drops into the valley and the town appears quite suddenly, with the spire of the Marktkirche above the roofs. Go early or late for peace, and eat something that does not look like a rat.