When we decided to visit Salzburg, right at the top of our list of activities we had to do was the Sound of Music tour. As the 1965 film is basically a travelogue for Salzburg, we knew it would be a must.
The tour we took was nice, though it was a little too serious for its own good. The film, though a well loved classic throughout the world, did not find an audience in Austria until 2000. This is often attributed as its release being still a bit too close to World War II for the Austrians to appreciate the film minus its WWII connection.
They drove us all over Salzburg into the neighboring suburbs and ultimately portions of the nearby lake district. Unfortunately, a lot of the filming locations are private property, so you can only get so close. The yellow house used for the backyard exteriors belonged to Max Rheinhart, who created the Salzburg Music Festival featured in the movie, and still runs to this day. Today, the house is owned by a US university, as a conference center. We were only able to get as close as the opposite side of the lake from it.
The famouse gazebo featured in the film was given to the city by 20th Century Fox, and that is now located in a public park.
Along the way, we stopped for a brief "strudel break" at a restaurant that serves Julie Andrew's favorite Apfelstrudel. I had to have piece. So much strudel - so little time.
We drove on a bit further, past Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown until we came to the church used in Sound of Music for the wedding scene. Surprisingly, it is about one hour outside of Salzburg.
It was absolutely beautiful, having recently been renovated. Guess being used as a film location in a popular classic film doesn't hurt.
Though not related to The Sound of Music, we passed one other important site on our tour, especially to the people in visual effects - the headquarters for Red Bull Energy Drinks. I'm guessing this is Austria's No. 1 export at the moment.
The tour ended at the Mirabell Gardens. This location was used extensively in the Do Re Mi number where the kids are jumping up and down the steps and peaking out from behind the statues.
Somehow, I got Tony to reenact the jumping up and down the steps bit from the film. There were actually quite a few people (Americans) doing it.
The gardens are beautiful, and if it hadn't been rainy, I bet they would have been even prettier. We wandered around them enjoying the lovely public spaces.
After the tour, Tony and I had to visit the Convent where Julie Andrews' character lived. This wasn't on the tour, but was part of our own extended tour. We found the gates where the kids had come to beg her to return to them. Evidently this scene is based on truth, and these were the gates where it really did happen. This was also the church where the real VonTrapp's were married.
That evening for dinner, we were exhausted so we ate at the hotel. We had an amazing dessert called Salzburg Nockerl. It is an eggy dish much like a Souffle, except the whipped eggs are served over a bed of fruit compote.
As berries are in season, we got to have it served over a wonderful fresh berry compote. Absolutely amazing and very filling. We couldn't eat it all, and after crying for mercy, we crawled up to our hotel room to bed. What a busy day!
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