The Sound of Music

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Today Mel wanted to see some of the locations from The Sound of Music movie as it was filmed in and around Salzburg. We figured out the buses and got our tickets from hotel (and they weren’t even marked up!) We caught the bus to the city centre and took a guess at the right stop. Why would any city have electric busses? They blot out the sky with a bird’s nest of messy wires and they are still just busses not trams! Ok rant over...

First stop was Mirabell gardens and palace where the song Doh, Ray, Me is performed in the movie. The first thing we came to was a playground which Em did NOT want to leave, then we walked through the gardens which are beautiful. We found the fountain and steps from the movie and wandered through the gardens surrounding the palace. Across a little bridge, there is a small gnome garden with about 15 stone statues around 3ft tall, all pulling funny faces.

We walked across the river and around the old city. This part of Salzburg is much nicer but still had bus wires everywhere. Most of the buildings in this area are constructed of the local stone which is quite soft and easily quarried. Along the back of the city stands Monchsberg, which is a small mesa with cliffs all the way around it. Many of the houses are actually built right into the mountain cliffs, and with limited space they even span the roads in some sections. The horse bath was a highlight of the old city, with huge wall murals surrounding it. Currently being repaired, it should be full of water soon and it will make a beautiful feature in this area of the city.

Back on the bus through the tunnel under the mountain, we went a stop too far then walked back. A couple of access points have been carved into the cliff faces and up the top is an oasis of rolling forest overlooking the old city. It was pretty steep going carrying Em but certainly worth it for the great view and walk through the forest and parkland on top. We had lunch above the tunnel entrance looking over the city to the river before heading back down the stairs on the city side of the cliff face.



We strolled through the rest of the old city taking in Residenze square and Mozart square where a busker was playing classical music on water filled bottles. He played Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and some Vivaldi while we were there, and he was a real performer. Picture the mad conductor who goes over the top at the front of the orchestra with his few remaining tufts of hair flying about wildly and you’ll be pretty close!

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