The weather today is not so good, cool and drizzly, but the forecast for tomorrow (Saturday) is no better, maybe worse, so we make the decision to try to take our "Sound of Music" tour today. Although people from other countries do not understand the lure of "Sound of Music" for us Americans, every American who comes to Salzburg wants to see the sights used in filming this movie. The tours are offered by different operators, but we decide to go with the recommendation in our Rick Steves guide book and take the tour offered by Bob's. When we check into our hotel shortly after 1pm, the front desk clerk immediately tells us the Panorama is the only tour that is any good, but we recall more advice from Rick Steves: ignore the advice from hotel personnel because they are only offering advice that gets them a kickback (or compensation) from the tour operators. So we ignore his advice. We walk to Bob's office on the river, and the tour is ready to go by 2pm. One advantage of Bob's is that the tours are very small, no more than eight people can fit in the small bus, whereas Panorama runs a greyhounds bus.
Here are the highlights of the sights we saw:
(1) The abbey from a distance -- probably no closer because the nuns don't want to be disturbed. Here was filmed "How do you solve a problem like Maria," the gate to the convent when the children unsuccessfully went to see Fraulein Maria after she had fled the family, and (3) when the family boards the getaway car at the end of the movie. There is no cemetery at the abbey, so that scene was filmed in Hollywood. A funny story about the filming of the movie at the abbey, told to us by our tour guide: when they were filming at the abbey it was a very hot day. The actresses when on break would sit in the garden with their robes lifted all the way up and smoke. Visitors to the abbey were scandalized -- the nuns spent more than a few years trying to live that down -- even though it wasn't the actual nuns!
(2) The Salzburg festival halls where the singing contest occurred (outside only).
(3) The mansion on the lake that served as the exterior of the Von Trapp house (back side only -- the front of the fictional Von Trapp mansion was an entirely different house). This is where the Von Trapp children fell into the water with Maria. Not too far from here is the mountain used for filming the final scene where the family hikes to freedom in Switzerland. One small problem: if you actually climbed this mountain, you would end up in Germany -- oops! The real Von Trapps actually hiked from their house a short distance to the train station and took the next train to Italy.
(4) The gazebo where Liezl sings, "I am sixteen going on seventeen ..." This is not located in its original location, but at Schloss Hellbrunn. It is also locked -- an elderly gentleman attempted to jump from bench to bench as in the film several years ago and fell and broke a hip. Now no one can go in. Nearby to here is the country lane where Julie Andrews skipped along and sang, "I have confidence," on her way to the Von Trapp house for the first time. We were all given the opportunity to skip along.
(5) A stop to admire the view of Wolfgangsee (beautiful lake, not part of the movie, just beautiful)..
(6) The church in Mondesee (Moon Lake) where the interior was used for the marriage of Maria and Captain Von Trapp (that's Georg to you!). Much smaller that you would expect. In the filming of the movie, Julie Andrews had to walk down the aisle four times to simulate a larger church. The townspeople were used as wedding guests, and if you look closely you can see Julie walking past the same people over and over. This part of the tour also included a stop for coffee and apple strudel!
(7) The gardens at Schloss Mirabell (back in Salzburg). This is where many of the "Doe a deer" scenes were filmed.
Our guide was very good. She really made an effort to try and find out inside information. For example, on the occasion of the re-opening of the (real) Von Trapp house as a hotel, Maria Von Trapp (not the stepmother played by Julie Andrews, but a daughter also named Maria) came as a 93 year old woman (she flew on the Red Bull private jet -- Red Bull's world headquarters is in the Salzburg area, we drove by it actually). Our tour guide was her driver and had breakfast with her as well. Our tour guide told us that she was a very nice woman who did not even need a cane for walking (she passed away at age 99).
One more comment on the real Von Trapp story: Maria was hired not to be the governess for all seven Von Trapp children; she was hired to be the governess for only one child who had been ill with rheumatism. That child was also named Maria and is the 93 year old woman from the previous paragraph.
The weather today was not good, but for the most part we did not have to deal with rain, but the clouds were hanging low and the mountains around the town of Mondesee would have been much more beautiful on a nice day. The tour ended a little after six, so we walked back to our hotel. We were not feeling very adventurous regarding dinner, so we eat at the hotel restaurant called the Blaue Gans (Blue Goose). It is actually very good. Rob had boiled beef (Tafelspitz), and I have wienersnitzel.
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