Maiwandern

The first of May is a holiday in Munich as the country looks to bring in the Spring!  It is tradition in Bavaria to celebrate the first of May by erecting a Maibaum (May pole) in each town and city.  The pole is in Bavarian colors of blue and white and a town usually gets a new one every few years.

Our good friends the Demmlers and the Kostelezkys invited us with some of their other friends on a Maiwandern (May day hike).  The idea was to meet at the train station, take the train to a small town in the south of Munich and hike to small towns erecting May Poles. Below we are posed with a typical site on our walk.  I'm talking about both the cows and my lederhosen.

We had many families with small kids and so the hike was kinderwagen (stroller) friendly.  Bavaria is truly beautiful.

One of the best parts of the towns with new May poles is they throw a town party in celebration.  As we were hiking from town to town, we needed to make sure we had the party with us at all times.  We took a wagon full of local beer, attached a small baum(tree) as our Maibaum and rolled along.

During the trip we stopped for picnics on the wiesn(meadows) and Will had his first solid food!  In true Bavarian fashion of course it was a Bretzn (pretzel).  I have a feeling there will be many more pretzels to follow in the next year.  As there are no Cheerios in Germany (I wish!), Bretzn are a favorite choice for kiddo snacks.  They come with their own built in handle and you can find them anywhere!

Of course, the Munich weather decided not to cooperate.  Although it had been nice the week before, Saturday's forecast called for rain.  It really started to come down as we hiked in the middle of nowhere, so we stopped at this farm for some shelter.  Here we are checking out the cows in the barn.  It was dry, but it sure did smell!

Finally we reached the town of Machtlfing where they had the May Day party.  Unfortunately, we were a little late as they closed down the party early due to the rain much to our dismay.  A warm up in the town restaurant and some schnitzel and beer kept us going.

Overall, we had a great day!  We hiked about 16km(10mi) across the Bavarian countryside and loved hanging out with our German friends.  It was a great day and we can't wait until next year when we hope the rain stays away.  Here is our route if you are interested:

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