Salzburg, Part 2

Before we called it a night Sunday night we bought tickets for the 9:30am Sound of Music tour the next day. I'll be honest, as of two weeks ago I'd never seen the Sound of Music. I'm not a fan of musicals, so I never really had an interest. Sure, I knew most of the music from having heard it all over growing up, but I never saw the actual movie and knew next to nothing about the story. Shanna insisted I watch it so the trip would mean a little bit more, and I'm really glad I did. While I can't say I really liked the movie (the breaking into song while you're trying to follow a story drives me crazy), she was dead on when she said it would make things more interesting. It was neat seeing the huge Fortress in person after having seen it in the movie, and it was neat to see all the places they filmed at 50 years ago. It was a Sound of Music tour, but really it was a sightseeing / historical tour.

We didn't know where the start point of the tour was, so we selected the option for a free pickup.  If we'd known it was literally a block away, we would have just walked.  The pickup was late, but thankfully the bus knew that, so they waited.  The tour guide was fantastic.  He had all kinds of interesting information to tell, and he was constantly joking around.  He was funny, informative, and gave a great presentation.  We started by driving to one of the houses where they filmed at.  The house you see in the movie is actually two houses.  The house we were at now was used for the back, which was by a lake, and the inside.  The house is privately owned by Harvard now, and is used by exchange students studying abroad.  As a result, we couldn't go on the grounds, we could only see it from the other side of the lake.  The front of the house in the movie, where you see them pushing the car out at night at the end, was another house that we would later drive by, and could only see from a distance because it was privately owned.

Next up was a trip to the Gazebo.  In 1964, when they were filming the movie, the Gazebo was located right next to the house here at the lake.  In 1991 they decided to move it to a state owned park nearby, which is where we headed next.

After the Gazebo, we drove by the actual church that Maria & Capt. Von Trapp were married at.  The church they shot the scenes at were filmed in another location that I'll get to later on.  The guide told us that the movie & broadway musical are loosely based on reality.  The real story was Capt. Von Trapp was a Navy Captain in the Austro-Hungarian Navy in World War I.  Shortly after the war ended his wife died, leaving him with 7 kids to raise.  He sent a request to the local convent to hire a Governess to look after the kids while he was away.  They sent Maria, they fell in love, and were married shortly after...in 1927.  Not 1938 like the movie.  When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, Capt. Von Trapp knew he'd be drafted into the German Army, and he didn't want that.  One day they and their 10 kids (he & Maria had 3 more) dressed up like they were going on a picnic, got on a train to Italy, hopped a boat to the US, and never went back to Austria.  Capt. Von Trapp died in 1947.  The family had a singing group called the Singing Von Trapps in Austria, and they continued in the US.  Eventually they stopped doing it, and Maria Von Trapp settled in upper Vermont because of how much the scenery reminded her of Austria.  She died in 1987.

The Nuns of the Convent don't want tourists coming in and gawking, so we could only drive by it.  After that we headed to Mondsee.  That's where the church is located where they shot the wedding scene.  To get there, the bus took the scenic route and we drove through the mountains.  The scenery was absolutely breath taking.  Finally we got to Mondsee around noon.  We were given an hour to walk around, see the church, grab a bite to eat, then meet back at the bus.  The tour guide pointed out a shop to us where he said they had the best Apple Strudel in all of Austria.  I'm sure the shop pays the tour company for that kind of promotion, but the apple strudel WAS good.  We also stopped in at a Pizzeria that had some amazing wood fired pizzas.

After lunch we headed into the Basillica, and it was nothing short of amazing.  Of course we took pictures, but they just don't convey the impressiveness of the sculptures & paintings inside.

At 1pm we headed back to the bus and drove back to Salzburg.  Once we got back, we headed back to the hotel to lay down for a bit, then got ready to head out.  Since we didn't make it the first night, we were heading to the Augustiner Brewpub tonight.  We decided to just eat there this time.  This place was pretty neat...they had a huge tap that ran back to their brewery in the back.  The beer was incredibly fresh, and the food wasn't too expensive.  Shanna & I shared a giant pork knuckle.  We enjoyed the place, but it would have been more fun with a big group.  I ended up getting a mug from there, and we headed back home.

That's it for Part 2.  Click here to see the pictures, or any pictures above.  Next up is the final part!