At Hellbrunn Palace, now.
“The Sound of Music tour! You have to take it 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 seeing 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 busload 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 Austrial.
Okay, it was fun.
Our guide pointed out the actual Abbey as we traveled through the old town. No filming was done there, but you could admire the Abbey.
The Von Trapp mansion depicted in the film 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 jumping from bench to bench would be fun, 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 climbed back into 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 ignores them and looks out the windows.”
They were full of smiles, and she waved her hand to show off 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.
Past Sound of Music 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 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 the 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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