The Hills Are Alive

When I visited Austria in high school, I only got to spend one short day here in Salzburg so that was my biggest objective in coming back, to see everything that I wasn't able to the first time and revisit the favorites. 

Our hotel has a restaurant on its sixth floor with gorgeous views of the city! Having breakfast up there, was a great start to the day. Up first, our Original Sound of Music Tour with Panaroma Tours. This has always been a favorite movie of mine, if not the absolute favorite! I still remember the first time I watched it when I was probably 7 or 8 with my little cousin Nora when they still lived in Baltimore, Maryland. You can't help but to fall in love with this classic film from 1965. 

The tour started at 9am across the street from the Mirabell Gardens, only a short two blocks away from our hotel. We hopped on the tour bus and we were off! The first stop was Leopoldskron Palace on the outskirts of Salzburg. This was the film location for the backdrop of Villa Von Trapp. You will recognize it as the location of the boat scene where Maria and the 7 children fall out of the boat while trying to greet their father who has just returned from a trip to Vienna. 

While we were driving through the city, our tour guide Ana would point out other places around the city where minor scenes were filmed. We got to see the house that serves as Villa Von Trapp- the yellow one. Did you know it didn't belong to that backdrop of the lake? They expertly were constantly changing camera angles to create the illusion.

On the left, you see the row of trees that Maria dances down as she sings the song I Have Confidence in Me. And then on the right, the famous Gazebo where Liesl had her first kiss at the end of the song, I Am Sixteen going on Seventeen. Although this is the gazebo they used for the beginning of the song, they actually used a different set stage one when the pair have to start dancing as this one was much too small for the dance number. 

Next we headed off to the Lake District, my favorite!! We went to two different locations. The second one played a much bigger role in the movie. It was in the lake town of Mondsee that Hollywood chose to film the wedding scene between Captain Von Trapp and Maria. Although in reality the pair had been married at Nonnberg Abbey, where Maria had previously been a novice. I had visited this town while here with my high school but had no clue about the relation to the movie. But nonetheless had fallen in love with Mondsee and was very excited to go back. This time paying special attention to St. Michael's Basilica. It looks so much lighter and brighter in reality than it does it the movie. Just goes to show how much they are able to alter lighting and a space to appear how they want it to.

We spent about an hour in Mondsee, so enough time to grab a coffee and go snap pictures of the lake before heading back to the bus for our final stop of the trip: Mirabell Gardens. This was the filming site of Do-Re-Mi and many hours were spent all over the gardens filming the different clips of the song. The song may start off in the foothills of the Alps but ends here in the gardens- going up the steps beneath that gate there in the picture.

And in all, it was an amazing tour that I would highly highly recommend to anyone who gets the chance to spend some time in Salzburg. If I am ever lucky enough to return to this amazing city, I would go again. My mom agrees with me!

While driving through the city, our tour guide had pointed out the Sacher Hotel, home of the famous Sachertorte and where Julie Andrews stayed while they were filming the movie. We decided it would be a great spot for lunch. I am loving all these old school cafes, that make you feel like you are at a fancy tea house or something. I tried the Sachertorte, it was yummy. Its a chocolate cake with an apricot filling, and a thick chocolate toffee shell. It's so different!

After that we did some shopping for awhile before returning to our hotel to relax. We had tickets for a Mozart concert at 8pm and I took a nap beforehand. All this constant travel is exhausting and I am just not getting enough sleep. The concert was in the Marble Hall
of the Mirabell Palace. It was a great evening! There were 3 violinists and one cello player. They performed selections from Mozart, Ravel, and Puccini.

The next day we decided that we wanted to take it easy. We slept in late and then after breakfast, we came back to the room and relaxed. I edited photos for awhile. It was a nice change to the constant go-go-go of the trip so far. That afternoon we set off into the musical world of Mozart. We went to both the birthplace of Mozart located in Old Town and also his residence until moving to Vienna in 1780. There was lots to be learned and we spent several hours between the two house immersing ourselves into not only his musical career but his family life. I had no clue that his older sister was also extremely musically talented but spent her life in her brother's shadow.

I had read somewhere that it was possible to attend Vespers inside Nonnberg Abbey if you were around at 5pm in their chapel. So we rushed up the hill to try to get there in time. Lots and lots of stairs! But unfortunately the Church was already locked so we couldn't go inside. But we did get to see the grounds and the gate where the children ring the bell searching for Maria in the movie. So it was worth it... I guess. I really wanted to hear the nuns singing, its one of my favorite sounds in the world.

The next day we attempted the city bus system for the first time to get us a little closer to the fortress before continuing on foot. We succeeded in getting there fine, but had issues on the way home, but more on that later. The Festung Hohensalzburg was built in 11th century and it stands atop the city of Salzburg on the hill. It was massive- it now serves as a museum for various exhibits that we explored: marionettes, regimentally garbs, silver, ornate furniture etc. It was interesting and definitely differed from all the other time periods of castles we had been visiting. But once again, it was the views of the city that I was excited for. And they didn't disappoint, even on a cloudy day.

We also visited several churches on our way to the fortress that we passed. It amazes me how Europe has so many churches in the span of even a quarter of a mile or so. There is just so much to see. First we went to the Salzburg Cathedral. I really wanted the details of the ceiling and columns. It is built in such a different style of the gothic cathedrals in the other major cities. It's lighter and brighter. Next we went on the visit St. Peter's Monastery, which was founded with 696. Once again, beautiful! I only wish that people would see the true beauty the old Churches possess.

We needed to get back to the hotel, grab our bags, and head to the train station to catch our 4pm train. So we hopped on a bus that we thought would take us back to town but rather took us out of town. We had to wait until we got a stop that conjoined with a different line so we could turn around. By the time we got back, we had spent 45 minutes on our detour so we quickly made our way to the train station. But we had 20 minutes to spare on the platform. We are now enjoying Innsbruck before our travels of Western Europe will be over.

The Brunette