2015-02-23 52 9

Mon 23 Feb 2015 in Hannover: 52.1268527, 9.3553267 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

The Geohash is located on a sheepwalk near Hameln.

Participants

• Fippe

Plans

I'm going to Hameln this evening by train and walk the rest of the way. Not sure if I'm allowed to go to the hash location, because it might be on army ground, but maybe it's just a field with a couple of houses, juding from Google Maps.

Expedition

Who on earth keeps sheep in a city?

Okay, I'll start from the beginning. I arrived in Hameln (For some reason, the city is called Hamelin in English, but I'll call it by it's German name) as planned and began to walk towards the coordinates, which were about three kilometers away from the train station.

On my way, I met a drunk guy, who made conversation with me. He told me that he speeks three languages: Russian, Ukranian, and German. He told me about martial arts and his time in military service, as well as that in the Sowiet Union (where he apparently was from) they never would talk badly about Germans, only about nazis. I'm not sure with which country he identifies, but he kept saying “We in the Sowiet Union” and “We Germans” both. He also told me about Russian fairy tales and about art in Moscow and that he didn't like the police because they haven't spent as much time in the Bundeswehr, the German army, as he did. Anyway, when I told him that I must go, he kissed me on both cheeks. An interesting guy.

As I went furtheron, I came close to the coordinates, but 500 meters away, a fence stopped me. “No trespassing”, they even had the sign in English to be sure. What a pity. But what I thought was interesting, was what was in the blocked area: Sheep. Someone is keeping sheep in Hameln. I already knew that something weird is going on in that area, because it looked unusual on Google Maps, but I suspected it was a relict of the British army, which left Hameln a couple of years ago. Who would suspect sheep in a city? Ah, too bad.

But the city of Hameln made up for it: I still had some time until the next suiting train departed, so I had a look at Hameln's city center. Hameln is famous for it's Rattenfänger, which literally means Rat-Catcher, but he seems to be called the Pied Piper in English. It is told that in the 13th century a strange guy with a magic flute came to Hameln and led all the rats into the river Weser. After the people didn't pay him for that he did the same thing to the kids. According to Wikipedia, this tale is world famous, but I'm not sure if that's true. Anyway, 200 years later, some artist created a sculpture of the Pied Piper and made it a gift to the city. (Sure, a gift. Probably he wanted to be payed too, but they drowned him before he could drown their children. Or maybe not.) I saw that statue (in front of a mexican restaurant) and made a picture, see below. After that, I went back to the train station.

Photos

• 

  Proof that I wasn't there

• 

  No trespassing in German

• 

  I wonder, if the sheep are that dangerous.

• 

  The Pied Piper

Consolation Prizes

Fippe earned the No trespassing consolation prize by almost (500m) reaching the (52, 9) geohash on 2015-02-23.