Sound of Music Tour

May 3, 2007  Salzburg, Austria

Today was the day I had been looking forward to for years.  I had been to Salzburg in 1972, but at the time (the days when you only saw movies in the theatre), I had never seen The Sound of Music.  So taking a tour of the movie sights didn't sound that interesting.  This time, I couldn't wait.

We boarded the bus, and being the last ones on, headed to the back.  There was a seat for two open, which Katie and I slipped into, and the only seat left was the middle of the bench seat in the back, between four British women, two on either side.  Poor Mike.  They talked around him the whole time.

"Do you think this is the right bus?"

First stop - the mansion.  It actually is quite close to the city centre.  Maybe a five minute drive.

The gazebo is no longer in the yard.  People kept jumping over the wall to see it, so they moved it to another location.  Unfortunately, the gazebo is kept locked, all because some 85 year old woman, who was trying to leap from bench to bench like Liesl, fell and broke her hip. (She ruined it for everyone.)

The famed gazebo

After the gazebo, we drove past the mansion that was used for the front of the house.  Yes, they used two different homes.  Then we headed for the road where the children were hanging from the trees as their father drove by with the baroness.

We couldn't reach the branches, so we had to settle for this.

Now it was off to the lake district where the opening scenes of the movie were filmed.  Of course, the sound track from the movie was playing with everyone singing along, that is, everyone with the exception of one.

The guide was hilarious.  He kept referring to the movie as "the greatest musical of all time....The Sound of Music."  He pointed out the Untersberg, the mountain where Maria was singing when she heard the church bells at the very beginning of the movie (which is about ten miles away).  She arrived at the abbey only five minutes later.  Obviously, "Maria was an athlete."

The Untersberg

We saw the church where the wedding took place.  It was in a little town called Mondsee, which is a bit of a distance from Salzburg.

The balcony where the nuns were perched like owls, singing "How Do You Solve a Problem" while Maria walked down the aisle.

The last stop was Mirabell Gardens.  This is where many of the scenes from "Do-Re-Me" were filmed.  I made Katie reenact them with me.  She obliged.

I pretended to be Maria, while Kate took on the role of Liesl.

The tour set a few facts straight about the greatest musical of all time.

1. "Edelweiss" is not a cherished Austrian folk tune.  It was composed for Broadway by Rogers and Hammerstein.
2. The family didn't escape by hiking to Switzerland (which is a five-hour drive away).  Rather, they pretended to go on one of their frequent mountain hikes.  With only the possessions in their backpacks, they "hiked" all the way to the train station (it was at the edge of their estate) and took a train to Italy.  The movie scene showing them climbing into Switzerland was actually filmed near Hitler's Eagles Nest--not a smart place to flee.
3. Maria's position was not as governess to all the children, but was as teacher and governess to Maria, the second oldest child who was bedridden.
4. The Captain didn't run a tight domestic ship.  His children were quite unruly.  He did, however, use a whistle.  

After the tour, we took the funicular up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress for some views of the city.  

We toured Mozart's birthplace, which was a joke.  They had countless locks of his hair on display, which obviously was due to the fact that they didn't have enough exhibits to fill the museum.  They also had a creepy baby with an adult face (to signify Mozart's timelessness) in a cradle.  Definitely not recommended.

We ran out of daylight at this point (plus it started to pour), so we decided to have dinner and call it a great day.