At Hellbrunn Palace, now.
“But you have to take The Sound of Music tour if you’re going to Salzburg,” insisted my daughter.
Several other friends chimed in with the same advice.
My husband and adult son didn’t see it that way. They wanted to visit the castle and admire the armaments.
So, feeling silly, I went by myself in March 2015.
I faltered at the sight of a large bus with Julie Andrews, er, Maria von Trapp, dancing through the mountains with a guitar case in one hand and a suitcase in the other, but I was committed.
Claiming the best seat
Fortunately, I got the first seat behind the driver for a splendid view of the scenery.
The tour escorts a bus load of tourists to the sites where the movie was filmed in 1964. Most of them are still there.
On a cloudy day that cleared to beautiful sunshine, the four-hour tour became a wonderful opportunity to see the mountain areas around Salzburg, while remembering great scenes.
Our fast-talking clever tour guide hummed familiar tunes as we started. Cheerful and full of information, he held the tourists spellbound as he recounted backstage stories from the filming, real life anecdotes of the von Trapp family and the occasional comment about Austria in general.
Okay, it was fun.
As we traveled through the old town, our guide pointed out the actual Abbey. No filming was done there, but you could admire the Abbey.
The Von Trapp mansion actually was a composite: the front of one villa and the back of another. (The family never lived in either house).
Can’t you see yourself riding by on a bicycle–or carrying a guitar case?
Probably the most memorable spot was at the glass gazebo. You remember–where Liesl and the German telegram-delivering pseudo-boyfriend danced to “I am Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” and she got a kiss.
Wheeeee!
The gazebo is locked (a 90 year old tourist attempting to recreate the dance missed a bench and hurt herself, thus denying anyone else the opportunity), but we could admire it.
(True confession: I thought it would be fun to jump from bench to bench, too).
It looks exactly as I expected though it’s not located at the alleged von Trapp family home on the water as depicted in the film.
Too many tourists. The gazebo is now on the lovely grounds of Hellbrun Palace.
We wandered around, admired it and then climbed back in the bus. Our guide took a headcount. “Good, we’re missing two.”
Turns out a young man was proposing at the gazebo.
“We’ll watch when they come back,” the guide said. “If they look happy we’ll applaud. If they’re upset, everyone ignore them and look out the windows.”
They were full of smiles and she was waving her hand to show a beautiful ring.
We applauded.
“Shouldn’t we sing a song from the movie, too?” I asked. (Which one would you suggest?)
“No,” he said.
Fun stories of tour experiences?
I asked him about some of the most ridiculous things that had happened on the tour.
He didn’t want to answer the question, but finally admitted he became concerned one time a young woman sat in the back and sobbed the entire tour.
“She said she had watched The Sound of Music twice a day for years. She couldn’t believe she was actually on the tour and just felt so happy.”
I’ve since learned of other tourists reacting to the tour. Some wore nun outfits, some came dressed in lederhosen and traditional Austrian dresses.
Maria’s abbey in Salzburg
One family brought three children: one wearing deer antlers, one dressed in gold and they other looking ordinary.
Who were they supposed to be?
A doe, a drop of golden sunshine and one little girl dressed as herself: “Me!”
Absolutely fun, of course.
(Are you humming yet?)
Next time–the beautiful Austrian scenery as backdrop to the film.
Tweetables
A fun morning on The Sound of Music Tour. Click to tweet
Romance in the gazebo: not just in The Sound of Music film. Click to Tweet
Riding a bus to see where The Sound of Music was filmed. Click to Tweet
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