Monday, November 9, 2009

Fall break: The Sound of Music tour

(Click here to catch up on day 1 if you missed it!)

*There are so many pictures from The Sound of Music tour that I'm going to drag this out even further and make this a separate post :)

On our second day in Austria, we woke up bright and early for our Sound of Music Tour. After an amazing breakfast at our hotel (this was probably the best hotel breakfast I've ever had...there were so many options) we waited outside the hotel for the van to pick us up. This whole tour process couldn't have been more convenient -- when we arrived at the hotel the previous day, the concierge asked us if there were any tour we'd like to do. We told him we wanted the Sound of Music tour, and he called them up right away, reserved our spots, handed us our tickets, and told us that they'd pick us up in front of the hotel the next day at 9:20am...so easy.

Pretty soon, this pulled up...



...and it was time to go! Let me just say that our tour guide, Peter, was AWESOME. He was raised in Florida but lives in Austria now (his mother is Austrian and his father is American) so he knew a lot about the US. First of all, he was hilarious, and second of all, I was glad that he not only made this tour about The Sound of Music, but also about Salzburg in general...I definitely feel like it was a great way to see the city.

Fun fact that we learned (I actually already knew it but I'm assuming most people don't)...did you know that The Sound of Music wasn't even aired in Austria until like 8 years ago? Austrians had no idea what it was for all these years and had no idea why Americans flocked to Austria to sight-see so much. And once they did see the movie, they didn't like it because the Germans already had a documented history of the Von Trapp family and they scoffed at the movie because they thought Hollywood was just trying to cash in on the story...

The first place we went to was Leopold's Crown Palace (this is the lake that Maria and the children fell into in the film)


He also told us that when filming, one of the times they had to re-do this scene, one of the children almost drowned in the lake. Interesting tidbit!

Frohnburg Castle (front terrace used in the film as well as the back side...in the "I Have Confidence" scene)


Next was the "16 Going on 17" gazebo...they permanently locked it a few years ago after an 80-year-old woman fell and broke her hip trying to re-enact the jumping from bench to bench scene like in the movie (no kidding!)




*Movie screenshot...


On our way to see the church where Maria and the Baron got married, we made a stop along the countryside to take in the views




Mondsee Church, where the wedding was filmed


It was even more gorgeous inside



*Movie screenshot...looks the same, no?


Afterwards we went Braun Cafe, which is where our tour guide says the best apple strudel is


We started with homemade chicken soup, then finished with the strudel


He said what makes this strudel the best is the vanilla sauce...and yes, it was really good.

After this we headed back to the center of town. We saw a few other things from the movie, but I wasn't able to get pictures of them because a lot of the buildings that were used are not open to the public, and tour buses aren't allowed to stop near them. This tour was definitely worth the money in my opinion -- we got a history lesson of the movie, Salzburg, and a trip the countryside (we were about 40 minutes outside the town center) that we never would have been able to make on our own. The bus dropped us off in front of Mirabell Gardens, where a large portion of the movie was filmed.

Mirabell Palace


In the back...Mirabell Gardens






The Pegasus Fountain that Maria and the kids marched around


On the Do-Re-Mi steps


*Julie and company on the same steps


Next, I had to dance through the hedge-covered archway, just as I remembered Julie and the kids doing...




Rose garden




Patting the head of the dwarf that they all patted in the movie. This drawf was one of many in the "dwarf garden" on the upper level of Mirabell Gardens


Athletic figures at the garden entrance


*Movie shot...


And that concluded our Sound of Music tour! It was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad we did it.

In my next post, I'll wrap up my time in Austria...

2 comments:

linanne said...

It was a real treat to see yet another wonderful page of this incredible journey book. I knew you would feel the greatness of Austria. I've heard they have pastries and goodies almost everywhere you go! So much of the food since your trip began looks so good, nothing you would find in America. I hope you get some of the recipe's and have the heart to pass in on to yours truly! It was so nice to hear your voice while Mom, Dad and Scarlett visited. Oliver says HI Love Aunt Lindaxoxo

Danielle said...

Hey Aunt Linda! It was nice talking to you too, even if it was just for a minute!

As a matter of fact, I do have some recipes to bring home already...only from Italy though. One is for an amazing pasta dish with eggplant, and the other is for Tiramisu! I also want to try to perfect the recipe for a dish that I tried in a restaurant here last month...which I still have to blog about.