May Day in Austria

1 May 2006 Krimml Wasserfall Today is May Day and the Austrians celebrate by raising a may pole and having competitions in which teams of young people would race to see how fast and how high they can climb up the pole. This is also the day when the local Oom Pah Pah Bands would go around to individual houses and shops to play in return for a donation.
It was fun for all. We missed the May Day celebration at Lofer but the whole village was drinking beer at the tail end of the festivities and we joined them.
We visited the Krimml waterfall. This series of cascades at 380m are Europe's highest waterfalls. We walked up the slopes to the second group of cascades. The path was covered with ice. The Alpine walking sticks which Farmer Hagn loaned Ronnie came in handy. At Krimml we met up with a Oom Pah Pah band who happened to stop at the local pub for their free beer. We had great fun with them. The band master even stole a dance with Pat and the young trumpet players make pictures with Debbie.