Salzburg
When I was a little girl, I was crazy for Julie Andrews movies, from Mary Poppins, to Thoroughly Modern Millie, but her crowning glory was my favorite, The Sound of Music. I can't even remember the number of times I asked my mother to take me to see it or watched it on TV (no DVDs or even VCRs back then), but I think it's safe to say I've seen it in excess of 15 times and I still love it. I was so disappointed, when we were living in Frankfurt, that all of Austria we saw was Innsbrook, not Salzburg. So when I made plans to visit Samantha in Vienna, the top thing on my list was the Sound of Music tour of Salzburg.
We took the train from Vienna, arriving in Salzburg in mid-afternoon. We checked into Hotel Elephant, which is a pretty little hotel in the old city, and headed out to the beautiful Christmas market in the shadow of the fortress and the to see the ice skaters in Mozart Platz. While very pretty, the lightly falling snow was also wet and chilly, so we sought an early dinner down one of the picturesque side streets off of Mozart Platz. On Wednesday morning, we walked back to Mozart Platz for our pick up by the tour company. We changed to a big bus and headed off on the tour, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Fortunately, Wednesday was a beautiful, sunny day, although still quite cold. The light dusting of snow made everything look magical. We first drove around downtown Salzburg, past Nonnberg Abbey, where the original Maria grew up and where she and The Captain were actually married. We drove past the marionette theatre where the Lonely Goatherd scene was shot, which is still used to stage marionette plays to this day. We headed off to the outskirts of Salzburg to see Leopoldskron Palace, where the back scenes of the movie were shot, when Maria and the children fall out of a rowboat into a lake upon seeing the Captain's return.
We learned that the movie was actually set in several locations, although many of the interior scenes of the whole movie were filmed on sound stages in L.A. Exterior shots were filmed in Salzburg, though. The lake behind Leopoldskron Palace is beautiful as are the grounds. This is also where the gazebo scene was filmed - "I am 16 going on 17" - although the gazebo was moved as the Palace is now a conference center and tourists were too disruptive for the conferences.
We next went to a picturesque little Christmas market, which is just next to the new location of the Hellbrunn Gazebo. We had to take pictures there, although it is locked, so we couldn't go inside. From there, we drove past Frohnburg Palace, which a private home, but it was used as the exterior of the Von Trapp villa, including the tree-line lane that leads up to it, where the children hung from tree branches as their father and his guests drove beneath them on his way home.
We next had a long bus trip into the lakes region outside of Salzburg, which was absolutely stunning. I tried taking pictures out the window of the bus with limited success. Fortunately, we did stop in some lovely spots to take pictures. The lakes regions were filmed for the opening and ending scenes of the movie, shown in panoramic scenes of the region, and they are just beautiful. We also saw bits of Untersburg Mountain, peaking through the snow and clouds, upon which Maria sings Sound of Music in the opening scene and where the family allegedly climbs to safety at the end of the movie. Of course, in real life, the family escaped Nazi Austria on a train to Italy.
We arrived in the town of Mondsee, where the interior of the Mondsee Cathedral was used to film Maria and the Captain's wedding. This Cathedral was beautiful and felt very much as it looked in the wedding scenes of the movie. I was so obsessed with this movie that I used the music from that wedding as the processional for my own, and I still love that music to this day.
Unfortunately, once we saw the inside of the Cathedral and had purchased a few souvenirs, there was little else to do in Mondsee, as most of the restaurants and shops were closed, even though this is planned as our lunch break. We found a small bakery cafe, as did almost everyone on the tour, and bought some "kaiser brotchen" (cheese baked on delicious rolls) and hot chocolate to warm our hands. Then it was back on the bus for the return to Salzburg, all the while watching some footage from a special anniversary edition DVD and listening to the soundtrack from the movie.
Once back in Salzburg, we checked out another small Christmas market, and then walked through Mirabell Gardens, where much of the Do-Re-Mi song was filmed. Then we walked over the Salzach River and back to our hotel, where we picked up our bags, called a cab, and caught the next train back to Vienna.
It was a short, cold, snowy visit to Salzburg and I'd love to go back someday, but it was a lot of fun. My daughters made a little fun of me and my long-held desire to go on the Sound of Music tour and see Salzburg more for it's role in that movie than for it's heritage as the birthplace of Mozart or the home of the Salzburg Music Festival or it's historical and architectural wonders. But, I was so happy that we saw the sights, took the tour, and made time during this quick trip to Vienna to go and see the city that brought me so many wonderful memories and brought the world one of the most-loved movies of all time.
When I was a little girl, I was crazy for Julie Andrews movies, from Mary Poppins, to Thoroughly Modern Millie, but her crowning glory was my favorite, The Sound of Music. I can't even remember the number of times I asked my mother to take me to see it or watched it on TV (no DVDs or even VCRs back then), but I think it's safe to say I've seen it in excess of 15 times and I still love it. I was so disappointed, when we were living in Frankfurt, that all of Austria we saw was Innsbrook, not Salzburg. So when I made plans to visit Samantha in Vienna, the top thing on my list was the Sound of Music tour of Salzburg.
Fortunately, Wednesday was a beautiful, sunny day, although still quite cold. The light dusting of snow made everything look magical. We first drove around downtown Salzburg, past Nonnberg Abbey, where the original Maria grew up and where she and The Captain were actually married. We drove past the marionette theatre where the Lonely Goatherd scene was shot, which is still used to stage marionette plays to this day. We headed off to the outskirts of Salzburg to see Leopoldskron Palace, where the back scenes of the movie were shot, when Maria and the children fall out of a rowboat into a lake upon seeing the Captain's return. 
We learned that the movie was actually set in several locations, although many of the interior scenes of the whole movie were filmed on sound stages in L.A. Exterior shots were filmed in Salzburg, though. The lake behind Leopoldskron Palace is beautiful as are the grounds. This is also where the gazebo scene was filmed - "I am 16 going on 17" - although the gazebo was moved as the Palace is now a conference center and tourists were too disruptive for the conferences.
We next went to a picturesque little Christmas market, which is just next to the new location of the Hellbrunn Gazebo. We had to take pictures there, although it is locked, so we couldn't go inside. From there, we drove past Frohnburg Palace, which a private home, but it was used as the exterior of the Von Trapp villa, including the tree-line lane that leads up to it, where the children hung from tree branches as their father and his guests drove beneath them on his way home.
We next had a long bus trip into the lakes region outside of Salzburg, which was absolutely stunning. I tried taking pictures out the window of the bus with limited success. Fortunately, we did stop in some lovely spots to take pictures. The lakes regions were filmed for the opening and ending scenes of the movie, shown in panoramic scenes of the region, and they are just beautiful. We also saw bits of Untersburg Mountain, peaking through the snow and clouds, upon which Maria sings Sound of Music in the opening scene and where the family allegedly climbs to safety at the end of the movie. Of course, in real life, the family escaped Nazi Austria on a train to Italy.
We arrived in the town of Mondsee, where the interior of the Mondsee Cathedral was used to film Maria and the Captain's wedding. This Cathedral was beautiful and felt very much as it looked in the wedding scenes of the movie. I was so obsessed with this movie that I used the music from that wedding as the processional for my own, and I still love that music to this day. 
Unfortunately, once we saw the inside of the Cathedral and had purchased a few souvenirs, there was little else to do in Mondsee, as most of the restaurants and shops were closed, even though this is planned as our lunch break. We found a small bakery cafe, as did almost everyone on the tour, and bought some "kaiser brotchen" (cheese baked on delicious rolls) and hot chocolate to warm our hands. Then it was back on the bus for the return to Salzburg, all the while watching some footage from a special anniversary edition DVD and listening to the soundtrack from the movie.
It was a short, cold, snowy visit to Salzburg and I'd love to go back someday, but it was a lot of fun. My daughters made a little fun of me and my long-held desire to go on the Sound of Music tour and see Salzburg more for it's role in that movie than for it's heritage as the birthplace of Mozart or the home of the Salzburg Music Festival or it's historical and architectural wonders. But, I was so happy that we saw the sights, took the tour, and made time during this quick trip to Vienna to go and see the city that brought me so many wonderful memories and brought the world one of the most-loved movies of all time.
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