May 1: Our successful search for the Maibaum

We got up, had a great breakfast with our hosts, did our laundry, then headed out in search of the Maibaum celebration. The BIG party is apparently May 4, the day after we leave, but according to someone at the info center there's something going on at one of the Augustiner bier halls on the other side of Hauptbahnhof (main train station). And we are just a block from Hauptbahnhof.

I found a guide to Munich bier halls online and there are two Augustiner bier halls that were theoretically not too many blocks from us. The one is attached to their brewery, in a rather industrial part of town. The other has an outdoor bier garten and seemed like the more likely spot, but it is also farther away, so we started with the closer.

And the closer is pretty close, and has a good traditional Bavaria menu, at better prices than we've found heading the other direction... so we resolved to come back for dinner after our afternoon adventures. We then headed as due north as we could, passing under the train tracks, and in pretty short order found the Augustiner Keller. It is really nice: a large, outdoor bier garten on a wooded site for plenty of shade, and with a playground providing activity for the kids. Very family friendly. Things were already hopping by noon (the festivities were supposed to start at 2:00). Lots of very colorful characters:

We grabbed a couple of mass (1 liter) beers and a pretzel and settled in. We ended up really glad that we arrived when we did, as it got crowded fast. We found some guys pounding metal spikes into long poles. While the purpose wasn't immediately evident, it became clear shortly:

Right around 2:00, we noticed a band assembling and folks moving to a far corner of the bier garten, so we abandoned our table and followed suit. Shortly thereafter came the procession of the band followed by a slew of men carrying a huge Maibaum:

The process of erecting the pole is quite elaborate. First, the base had to be fitted into a large, hinged metal stand and bolted into place. Then the men began to hoist. The poles we'd seen being prepared earlier were joined together with elaborate rope slings, and two sets of these were used to gradually raise the pole: one holding while the other was adjusted to get more leverage and push the pole up further.