Salzburg, Austria: Where the hills are alive with The Sound of Music

This weekend I accomplished yet another life goal: going to Salzburg, Austria for The Sound of Music Tour! It was an amazing weekend and definitely something I will never forget!

Friday night after camp we quickly packed and headed to the Macaroni Grill on base for dinner! Brittany, Joan, Amy and I went and it was a nice way to relax and catch up after a long week of camp! Then Saturday morning we left bright and early and got to Salzburg around noon.

On the train we ended up sitting by four other Camp A girls who were living and working at a different base and who were also traveling to Salzburg.  They, however, are doing a fifteen-week camp, and have already been in Germany for TEN weeks.  As fun as that would be, I’m glad I’m only here for ten.  Upon arrival, we checked into the hostel, which was surprisingly nice and very close to the meeting spot for the tour.

All of us Camp A girls
 on the Sound of Music Tour

If you don’t like the Sound of Music or have never seen it, I would stop here, as the rest of my blog will be filled with information and sights from the movie! Ok… now that I have my true Sound of Music fans reading, I will continue! The tour itself was four hours long and was worth every euro spent! They take you around Salzburg in a giant tour bus and give facts about the city and the movie along the way. They even played music from the movie, but more of that later!

Our first stop of the tour was the Salzach Lake where Maria and the children fall out of the canoe. We got to see Leopold’s Crown Palace, which is what they used to shoot all of the balcony/lake scenes from. An interesting fact about this is that they shot all of the terrace/patio scenes facing the house at one location, and all of the ones facing the lake at this location. Then, they just edited them together- cool, huh?

I also learned a lot about the real Von Trapp family. For instance, the way they got famous is quite different than the movie. In reality, the captain had invested all of his family’s money into a friend’s bank, that eventually crashed. When this happened the family went bankrupt and resorted to renting out rooms in their house for money. In one instance they had an opera singer staying upstairs who thought their singing (that was done for fun) was really good and that they should go professional. And the rest, they say, is history.

On the way to our second stop we drove past Nonnberg Abbey the Abbey where Maria is from, and also the location where she gets off the bus and sings, “I Have Confidence” (my favorite song!). Then we arrived at our second stop, the world famous Gazebo. Apparently you used to be able to go into the gazebo until an 80-year-old lady got a little too excited about dancing and broke through the glass… Bummer. This gazebo was actually just used as a background and in the song, “Something Good”, but the dancing for “16 going on 17” was filmed in a different gazebo made larger for the dance.
The entire time we were at the gazebo I kept thinking of my dad as “16 going on 17” was “our song”. I kept thinking of all of the times I used to make him dance with me or hold my hand as I leapt around pretending to be Leisel. Thanks for the memories dad, you’re the best! J I even took a picture pretending my dad was there as he would have loved it! Miss you dad!

Pretending my Dad was with me!

Doing the "Weeee" like in the movie

After driving around the city and seeing different scenes for the introduction of the film, it was time for a scenic view of Salzburg. Although it was not the mountain Joan and I were expecting (we wanted to run up the hills and sing “The Hills are Alive”) the view was still breathtaking! The water was bright blue and the whole town was surrounded by mountains- a place I’ll never forget!

Our fourth stop of the day was a longer break where we had time to view the church in Mondsee where they filmed the wedding in the movie. In reality, Maria and the Captain got married in Maria’s Abbey, but they used this church in the movie for some reason. During our break we had time to see the church, shop, and have some Apple Strudel (some of my favorite things).

Outside the Church

Inside the Church

Apple Strudel!

After our break we re-boarded the bus for a long ride including a short video and a quick sing along session! They played a lot of the songs from the movie as we drove around and encouraged the bus to sing along! Joan and I definitely didn’t hold back and let the bus hear our own rendition of many songs! I think the older gentleman across the aisle was glad we did as he started joining in. He knew all of the words to all of the songs, but his wife chose not to sing along. It reminded me of how my parents would be if they were on the tour as my dad LOVES the movie and my mom likes it, but not as much as we do! As she says, “I like it once a year, not once a week!” haha.

Joan & I were definitely 2 of the
most excited people on the bus!

Our final stop on the tour was the Mirabell Gardens where several scenes from “Do-Re-Mi” are shot. We walked around the fountains, the steps, and the ivy-covered archways trying to re-enact the movie and got a lot of funny pictures out of it.

Once the tour was over we were ready to re-fuel with some dinner. We stopped at a small Italian restaurant in Salzburg where they make three dishes everyday and those are your only choices. The workers barely spoke English so it was another struggle to communicate- always entertaining. We decided to end our night with a few drinks back at the hostel and then it was time for bed!

Sunday was my only disappointment of the trip so far. Our plan was to wake up early and to go Eagle’s Nest which was built as a place for Hitler to vacation and work from. It is on the top of one of the Swiss Alps and is supposed to have an amazing view. However, they never mention how long it takes to get up there so we only got about half way up by the time we had to turn around and catch our train. Oh well- if this is the only disappointment so far, I’ll take it! Especially since I got over it pretty quickly!

A view on our way to Eagle's Nest

Well this blog post has definitely been LONG ENOUGH! So I’ll call it quits! Tschuss! (a.k.a See ya! in German)