Advertisement
Published: June 24th 2005
Edit Blog Post
Die Hügel leben...
Nonnburg Abbey of Sound of Music fame. Maria was sent from here to work as a governess in the von Trapp home, both in the movie and in real life. I think the small arch at bottom center is the front gate, actually used in the movie for the scene in which the von Trapp children come looking for Maria after she leaves them. I had previously asserted that all the relevant
Sound of Music sights were in the Altstadt (old town center) and easily walkable, thus eliminating the need for a bus tour. Upon reviewing the free map I got from the tourist office, I discovered I was totally wrong about that, and nearly all of them are well outside the city, only conveniently accessible by car or bus tour. So, I caved and reserved the bus tour for this morning. Traveling alone, as the attentive reader has already noticed, I've gravitated toward guided tours as a way of finding structure and a bit of human interaction. It's helpful.
After breakfast, the guide from Bob's Special Tours (recommended by Rick, who described a "casual mini-bus") pulled up to my hotel driving a shabby taxi-van. Casual indeed. But, he was quite a nice gentleman, and I, traveling solo, scored the front seat. We picked up two older families who were pleasant enough, but dull, and we all kept to ourselves; no new friends for me on this tour.
I have this to say about the tour: if you come to Salzburg hoping to immerse yourself in a
Sound of Music experience, you
will Tourists in exceptionally poor taste
Here at the beautiful Mondsee church outside of Salzburg, used for the filming of the Sound of Music wedding scene (which was, for decades, mostly cut out of the NBC-TV version but has since been restored), this gentleman has actually posed his daughter kneeling at a pew as if in prayer, but only for a photo-op. Gack. be disappointed, and it is not the tour operators' fault and there isn't anything they can do about it either. The fact is, the SoM sights that actually exist in Salzburg are either fleeting (about 50%!o(MISSING)f the tour is buildings and fountains that were seen for a fraction of a second each during the "Do, Re, Mi" sequence throughout the town) or are not open to the public. If I were a Salzburg investor, I'd buy up the Leopoldskron Palace (rear façade of the movie mansion) and Frohnburg Mansion (front façade), neither of which is used for anything particularly important now, and turn them into SoM-themed hotels and charge American tourists absolutely whatever sky-high rates I wanted! Salzburgers don't think much of SoM, though, and I think it suits them just fine that their city is a pretty poor reminder of it. So, in conclusion: skip the airfare, hotel and tour fees, and just buy yourself the special edition DVD.
However, if you come to Salzburg hoping to immerse yourself in a
Mozart experience, you are in the right place! Two museums and a square with a statue, plus not one but several nightly concerts, plus an annual
Festival, all spell one fantastic musical experience. Salzburg also has 38 churches, each competing with all the others for ornamental gorgeousness. The cemeteries are unique and well worth visiting (the SoM cemetery scene was filmed on a Hollywood set, and the Von Trapps couldn't've hidden behind the markers as they are always flush with the back wall, but the set does convey the right impression).
In fact, the city of Salzburg is so excited about Mozart that, in preparation for the jubilee year 2006 (250th anniversary of Mozart's birth), they have torn the hell out of and are renovating or reconstructing nearly every street and square on the Altstadt, as well as many interiors such as the Salzburger Dom... messy, dusty projects, all scheduled for completion
next year. It's a testament to Salzburg's beauty that the place, though a mess, is still enjoyable under these conditions.
Now, my problem today is this. It's relatively early yet, and I have
all day tomorrow, and I've pretty much run out of things I want to see except that I intentionally saved the two Mozart museums for tomorrow morning. I have to be out of my hotel at 11, but then have to kill the entire day until my night train at 23:30, that being the night train I wasn't all that excited about taking anyway. Plus I get to sweat all day tomorrow, then face all the
next day without a shower. I'm seriously considering cancelling that reservation and taking an early day train instead, so I can spend the night in Mainz or Bingen and start fresh on Sunday. We shall see. Herr W. did say he sees a lot of independent-minded travelers. 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0178s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Mom
non-member comment
Sound of Music
It wasn't at all what I expected. Glad I didn't take the tour bus there from Vienna in 1970. I would probably have enjoyed the scenery. Like today, on the Quilt Shop Hop clear over to Duvall! Mozart sounds fun! Got 2 more of your postcards, thanks.