Sound of Music

---

We are still enjoying the beauty of Salzburg. Kate flew from her week's vacation in Ireland to join us for two days. She and I enjoyed the Sound of Music Tour which is the prime tourist draw to this area. The tour took us to the locations that were actually filmed here and some that were duplicated in Hollywood. Kate had me singing the songs that as she filmed and I also filmed here. We are definitely not Julie Andrews but you just couldn't help yourself in this setting. Curiously, we were talking with a student from Poland and she was baffled by the interest in this film as she had never seen or heard of it. When we recalled that Julie Andrews also starred in the Princess Diaries, she was able to make some connection. Who ever thought that this would be a generational phenomenon.

Salzburg is renowned for their winter sports. We are surrounded by the most magnificent mountains. The views are spectacular. As we were driven through them we spotted many short ski lifts used by the locals. The Alps are easily reached within a short time. There is also a large lake region where there are over 70 lakes. Both the winter and summer resort areas are within less than an hour from here.

The story of the Sound of Music movie is basically true with addition of some Hollywood touches. The original VonTrapp home is in an area that is not allowed to be viewed by the public. It is a 22 room villa. They used two palaces to substiute for it intermingling both the exteriors of the buildings and the surrounding grounds. Several of the locations were dulplicated for the filming such as the ball room and the gazebo. The actual gazebo was used in the scene between the captain and Maria. The dance sequence with Lizelle was done in an enlarged gazebo in Hollywood. By the way, the eldest child of the VonTrapps who is supposed to be Lizelle was actually a son (he ultimately became a doctor). Whenever he was asked which child he was in the film, he would courtsey. The story of Maria VonTrapp was fascinating. She lost her mother at the age of 2 and her father at age 4. She was basically raised in a strick foster home. She loved singing and the outdoors as well as church concerts. She was not a churchgoer until one day when she thought she was attending a church concert and it was a high mass instead. She became enamoured of the church and was mentored by a priest. She ultimately decided to become a nun. As in the movie, the indoor life was most difficult for her. She was assigned to help one of the VonTrapp children who had scarlett fever (which was the cause of their mother's death). Maria had been trained as a teacher before joining the convent and that allowed her to tutor the child during her recovery. She stayed with the Von Trapp family for one year and the other children wanted her to stay forever. They went to their father before her departure and asked him if he liked her. The story goes that he thought she did not like him. So they went to her and asked her the same question. She said she did like him and at that moment they were engaged. She was 22 and he was 25 years her senior. His fortunes turned during the depression. Previously he had been a naval officer because at that time Austria had a coastline. After World War I, they obviously lost their coastline and no longer needed a navy. His deceased wife's father had essentially invented the torpedo so he was financially secure until the depression. In the interim, a family friend recognized the musical talent of the children and convinced the family to take lessons in learning both folk and classical songs. It was as unusual an act as the Osmond family. They began singing locally and than internationally prior to the Nazi occupation and it accounted for their family income. They rented out portion of their home for added income. They did sing at the Salzburg festival which started in the 1920s and continues today. They did not climb over the mountain to escape the Nazis but took a train to Italy. They were informed as to the timing of the Nazi occupation by a faithful servant who was a Nazi. They left the night before the official occupation. Baron VonTrapp was very outspoken in his criticism of the Nazis as were his older children.

We visited the church where the movie version presented the wedding. It is magnificent. It is in a small village about 45 minutes from Salzburg. They were actually married in the convent church which overlooks the city of Salzburg. It is the church of the order of which Maria was a member.

You do feel like you are living the story here. We will be delighted to bore you with the our movie version of the Sound of Music in which we all sing horribly off key.

The conference center where we are staying was in many of the scenes of the movie. It is a global conference center and it is owned by Harvard University. The food is incredible. I am so glad I brought one pair of larger slacks.

I hope you all are enjoying the first day of spring. We had a light snow here this morning but it is not really cold out. Hopefully as we travel to Lithuania the winter will leave us. I have my fingers crossed.

---