Pied Piper of Hamelin
I had no specific expectations from our trip, especially since I didn't know everything about the country, and most especially for my childhood dreams to be shattered.
When I was young, I remember reading about the Pied Piper of Hamelin, a story about a jester/trickster of some sort coming to the town of Hamelin to seduce the rats out of the town. At the time, I felt like it was such a noble idea and my young self thought the piper must've been a Robin Hood of sort.
The travel director however, shattered my sheltered belief that all ended well then. I was devastated to know that the story was in fact, inspired by the true story in 1200 when the children of Hamelin disappeared. As in the story, a trickster came to play his pipe and the children went to follow him. To this day, nobody knows where they went and the town is not allowed to play music for fear of losing the children again.
Chills. Germany is just becoming the right thing I was looking for.