Brothers Grimm!

Monday 23rd September 2024. Restless Legs Awareness Day.

Hannover to Hameln – 53km.

Last night was having a quiet evening in practicing my integral calculus from my school days, just to see if I could remember ‘dy by dx’ and what relevance it had in my world. After the first two minutes I gave up. I didn’t know then and I certainly don’t know now. Instead I went onto BBC iPlayer and naughtily watched Saturday nights Strictly Come Dancing. It’s probably the first catch up TV watching I’ve done whilst on this trip! Wynn Davies (the Opera Singer on the Go Compare adverts) was ‘my favourite’.

On another note, you may have gathered by now that I am a long term sufferer from ‘Restless Legs Syndrome’. It is a condition that is grossly overlooked and I don’t get any sympathy. It is vital that today we raise the awareness of the blog reading public to this debilitating disease. I don’t like to talk about it but the condition makes me move daily from place to place on my bike!….whether I like it or not. It just so happens that today I am heading to Hameln (that’s Hamelin to most English readers). Yes, that’s the place where the Pied Piper comes from.

My restless legs set off at 8.30am even though I didn’t have too far to go today. I knew the weather was turning but it was a pleasant autumn day.

I was in no particular rush to get to Hameln because I knew I was having a look around tomorrow morning with my twinned friends.

When I titled the blog today, you probably thought immediately of my brothers David and Peter. I don’t blame you….they are a bit Grimm. However, the Brothers Grimm actually came from this part of Germany and wrote (or adapted) many major children’s stories we are familiar with today. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretal, Rumplestiltskin and more. They also wrote ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’. It’s a bit of a frightening (grim) story really but also a lesson in life about sticking to your word or there could be consequences! I won’t tell the whole story but it involves the Pied Piper leading the plague of rats out of town and then leading the towns children out of town too! It is based on a true story, I think.

Before I finish I will give you three Hameln facts….it is on the Weser River….it is twinned with Torbay….and it was a home to the British Army Engineers Regiment until 2014.

I will do more photos of Hameln highlights tomorrow or Wednesday. I may miss blogging tomorrow and do a recap after my visit to Rinteln.