When we first arrived, our hostess pointed out these very tall poles with a Christmas-type tree on top. She told us they were Kirchweihs. She showed me a foldout calendar for this year that listed all the Kirchweihfests for this area. Basically, the locals can attend one every weekend it looked to me.

One of the things she suggested for us to do (after we’d looked after the animals) was for us to attend the Salzbürg Kirchweihfest over this weekend. So of course we did.

Salzbürg was supposed to have around 200 people living there, but not including the visitors today, it definitely was at least twice that.

So, what is a Kirchweih? – it is literally the dedication of a church. The ‘fest’ is held on a weekend either near the Church’s dedication or the Church’s patron saint’s feast day.

Each village has or erects one of these poles for the celebration. Our hostess explained that this little village where she lives no longer holds the festival because the locals have to cook and cater over a three day period and when there are so few in the village, it becomes too hard.

Also – the night before the Kirchfest is a very very long night. Tradition has it that the neighbouring villagers will try to steal the pole before the event, so the locals must guard it all night. To help with this task there is usually a fair bit of beer consumed. Obviously the Salzbürg ‘guards’ did a good job, as the pole was still there.

A Kirchweihfest is similar to a small fair.

There were three ‘show’ stalls in Salzbürg. I really wanted Mick to have a go at this shooting game, but we got the feeling we were there too early. No one was spending any money or time on these (yet).

Salzbürg was a quaint little village with an interesting multicultural history. The cemetery has graves for Huegenotts and Jews – which our hostess thought was pretty rare.

We did not visit the cemetery, rather we joined the (small) crowd in the Biergarten for lunch – cooked by the locals.

It was a very cheap meal. Mick ordered the steak and potatoes while I chose the kraut.

All the way through his meal, Mick kept changing his mind as to what it was he was eating . He did not think it was beef, but enjoyed it all the same.

We both had a beer.

Mine was alkoholfrei of course, as I am the driver.

I haven’t told Mick yet, but there is another one next weekend in Schwend- a village much closer to us. I think we should go.