The hills are alive!

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Today was the day we (well, at least I) had been waiting for. The Original Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg, which takes you to many of the set locations of the famous movie, and also gives you a history of the real Von Trapps and information about the movie.

We woke in the original Von Trapp house early in the morning. Our tour started at 9:15, and although we had done the test-drive of getting there the night before, I was eager to be ready to make sure we had plenty of time. I wanted to check-out by 8 to give us time to walk to the bus stop and then remember our way to Mirabellplatz, where the tour started. Breakfast in Villa Trapp is only served from eight, so we had to forgo it to make sure we left on time.

Like to plan, we managed to check out by 8 o'clock (a little bit before, actually) and were soon on our way to the bus stop, which wasn't too far to walk to. Once there, we needed to wait another 5 or so minutes before the bus came.

The odd thing we have noticed about Salzburg busses (for we haven't noticed it in any other city) are that some of them are attached to wires above the road. We haven't worked out why that might be, exactly, but Albert suspects it's the ones with the extension parts on it to stabilise. I guess we will never really know, though.

We knew what stop we needed to get off, but then we couldn't remember whether or not we had crossed the bridge or not. I had thought we hadn't, but when nothing on that side looked familiar, we decided to cross it.

Suddenly, everything was familiar again!

We found a little bakery on the way which sold 1 euro croissant things filled with custard or jam or chocolate. I had a custard one and Albert had a jam one. They were so-so. They were packet ones, not fresh ones, so not the greatest, but edible.

When we reached the meeting point, we were about 30 minutes early, so after confirming where the bus would be, we walked back to another bakery to purchase something else as we were still hungry. This time, everything really was fresh and we have learnt that the pastries here are very yummy, no matter what you buy! My favourite so far has been the cheesecake strudel. So good!

As we had arrived so early we were the first to board the bus when it did get there. We were greeted by a very friendly and cheerful tour guide called Peter, who we later found was a Salzburg local. The tour was in English, and he had such fluent English that we could barely hear an accent on him. When he asked us where we were from he even said something along the lines of 'g'day mate'.

He would have been having to say that a lot, because just after we left he asked how many Australians were on the bus and it had to be more than half the people on the tour. Apparently the Sound of Music is very popular in Australia!

The other portion was American with a few other nationalities in between.

Peter was the most enthusiastic tour guide I had ever experienced. In between his giving of information and between stop locations, he was keen to share some jokes regarding the bus driver Mathias, as well as Salzburg itself and Germany. He had us laughing for the whole 4 and a bit hours.

The first part of the tour consisted of simply driving past some of the set locations. This included Mirabell Palace and the gardens (which we would stop at at the end) and a bridge which had made an appearance in the movie.

Our first actual stop was the lake in the part of the movie where the children fall in. The palace there also consists of the garden of the Von Trapp house. What was interesting was that the front of the house was filmed in a completely different location to the back and the lake, and all the interior was filmed in a studio in Hollywood. They had wanted to film it in there, but had not been allowed by the Salzburg police. Therefore, they had hired sketchers to go in and sketch the interior so they were able to make the sets exactly the same.

Another off-topic fact Peter gave us was that the lake in winter was usually frozen over enough for people to go ice skating on. This year, however, it was the warmest winter on record and in some places there was only a very thin layer of ice and in others, no ice at all. Today, the weather stayed at about 7/8 degrees Celsius, which is very warm for this time of the year.

After being given some time to take a picture or two we boarded the bus again and a short while later we stopped at another set location; though this one had been moved from where it was initially filmed.

The famous gazebo, from the song '16 going on 17'. People were no longer allowed to go inside it, but could only take pictures from the outside, which was slightly disappointing. They kept it locked now, but it was still lovely.

The original location had been near the lake and the back of the palace, but after filming, they had moved it and dedicated to the people of Salzburg, because they had enjoyed it so much. Now it is in some other palace grounds, a bit out of the way, but still very pretty.

Along the way you drive past where they had filmed the front of the Von Trapp house and the little road with all the trees in which Maria sings down and where the children climb. Unfortunately, the bus couldn't get there as it is a restricted area for walking and bicycle riding, but it has since been turned into a school of music. Nonetheless, if you've seen the movie it is very recognisable.

After this we drove past a few more sets and learn about the history of Salzburg. It was a little drive along the countryside to another set - the church where they filmed Maria and the captain's wedding. In the movie, it is set at the same abbey in which Maria had been a nun at, though the set location was completely different.

The church of St. Michaels is in a little town called Mondsee which is like the little medieval locations such as Krems from last week. You are allowed to go into the church and take pictures, but by the time we had had lunch and looked in the souvenir shops, we unfortunately ran out of time to go in. Though, the outside was stunning!

Before we reached Mondsee, we stopped just above a lake in a town called St. Gilgen. This is the birthplace of Mozart's mother, and honestly, it had one of the most breathtaking views over the lake and into the mountains that we had ever seen. It wasn't even overly cold up there - it remained around 6 degrees.

After we spent some time in Mondsee we headed back to Salzburg, where our final stop was where we had started: the Mirabell gardens. This time, we got to go inside and see the Pegasus fountain and the steps where they filmed the final part of Do Re Mi. Unfortunately, in winter they close other parts of the garden due to ice, so we were unable to see all of the filming locations in there, but we saw the most famous ones, right?

After the tour ended, we headed back to the train where we came back to Innsbruck. It was another pleasant journey, taking about 2 hours this time. Once we returned to our hotel here, we rested up for a bit and then went down to our hotel restaurant for dinner. It is a bit pricey, but we decided to treat ourselves to some very yummy steaks (who knew Austria could do steaks well). They were honestly some of the best we had tasted, and they actually cooked it to how we requested it.

We only have a few more days left here, but we are hoping to make the most of it, despite becoming tireder by the day.

Now that I've talked about the Sound of Music, I hope to leave you with the songs stuck in your head - like they have been for me all day!

See you tomorrow!

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Photos

Dessert
In the town of Mondsee

Palace
This was the palace where the gazebo was near

St Michael's church
Where the wedding scene was filmed

Von Trapp back and lake
The building and the lake served as the back of the Von Trapp house