Mayrhofen im Zillertal Almabtriebfest
As the trees adorn their branches with classic fall hues, thousands of visitors flock to one little Bavarian town or another signaling the time that the cows come home! I know watching cows come home from the mountain sounds pretty hokie, a little backwoods even. However, in Mayrhofen, Austria, cows walking down from the Alps make a pretty valid reason to throw a big street party.
During the summer, farmers send their cattle to graze in the alpine meadows. When the leaves start to change, farmers drive their cattle, dressed in show-girl style headdress, garlands, and clanging bells down to the valley where they return home, stopping to rest at various pastures on the way.
Almabtrieb (Alm-ubtreeb) or Viehscheid (Vee-shide) fests are what American southern girls recognize as a cattle drive festival. Thousands of visitors come to the cattle drive every year, and celebrate German style with traditional, accordion-lased mountain music, dancing, beer tents and more modern bands wooing crowds live! It goes on most of September and through October (depending on the weather). It’s a great family activity, fun for friends, a place to for fantastic photos of German culture, or just have some fun.
Mayrhofen’s Almabtreibfest had this Kentucky country girl taking photos of cows! Never, in all my years in Kentucky or Alabama, have I ever photographed a cow until I moved to Germany. Just makes me think that my little Kentucky town, with all its cows, should certainly incorporate a cattle drive into our fall festivals. The town of Obertsdorf in Germany has a larger cattle drive, (totaling over 1000 animals) is well down into the Allgäu region (the low mountainous area before the Alps) and is about 2.5 hours from Stuttgart. Some Cattle drive fests are much closer.
Activities start early in the day like 0930. You’ll want to be dressed in your native German attire (dirndl and Liderhosen). If you don’t have it, shops will be open. The shops in the Bavarian Alps have a much wider variety of cute, authentic accessories for your native attire than places in Stuttgart. It’s easy to blow 400 euro. Be sure to check out my buying guide before you go.Sip your cappuccino and have some strudel drenched in vanilla cream in one of the lesser populated coffee shops and watch the first few parades of cows go by. As the day warms up, shop, walk up and down the streets, dance to the accordion mountain music, buy from the local venders, watch out for the drool, blood, and poop in the road. When you stop in a little restaurant for lunch, try the putenschnitzle. Coming from the Shwabish area, where every meal includes pork, I had never had jager puten schnitzel until I traveled Bavaria. It’s healthier and delish! Spend the afternoon taking the train to the top of the mountains or gliding through the mountains. Better do this before 4 pm. As the sun starts to set…and it’ll set early these days… it’s time to check into a quaint little gasthaus for the night. The cows will be finished with their parade but the party is just getting started. I actually went back to Munich for the Oktoberfest but, if that’s not on your to-do list, I suggest staying in Mayrhofen or moving on to another charming Alpine town like Innsbruck or Fussen for the night.
