Sound of Music Tour

Breakfast at the Hotel Bristol was elegant to say the least. At 9:00 we were to meet our tour guide and board a coach to visit the most significant sites to the story of the Von Trapp family, both actual and those used in making the film.

Breakfast at the Bristol Hotel

Meeting our tour guide, Ursula, we boarded another very comfortable coach and departed for the first of several stops on the tour, Hellbrunn Palace, where we found the gazebo around which Rolf and Liesl sang  "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" in the film.

Ursula encouraged us to reenact that scene, but...  This we found was not the original location of the gazebo. It had been moved from Schloss Leopoldskron, which is now a private residence (nice to have that kind of money!) and the owners were tired of having tourist traipsing all over their property to look at the gazebo.

The Schloss  was actually our next stop. We saw it from across the lake, where the boating scene in the movie was filmed.
Next was the Nonnberg Abbey, which played a part in both the movie and in real life. In reality this is where Maria and the Baron were wed. In the movie the children come to the gates of the abbey to ask Maria to return to them and she is shown to run from the "hills" down to the abbey. In reality, the "hills" are some 20 Km away from the abbey which is at the base of the Fortress Hohensalzburg.

Next we visited the site of the movie wedding between Maria and the Baron, the Church of Mondsee. This was a bit of a drive so just to keep things entertaining Ursula played some of the tracks from the movie score and got us all singing along. Oh, my!

Ursula leading us in "Do Re Me"

Traveling to the other side of Lake Mondsee we came to the town of St. Gilgen, birthplace of Mozart's mother. It is also used in the opening scene of the movie.
Our final stop is right behind our hotel, Mirabell Gardens, where in the movie Maria and the children dance about singing "Do Re Me"

Mirabell Gardens

Returning to the hotel we had the rest of the afternoon to continue to explore Salzburg on our own with the aid of our Salzburg Cards.
We chose to see Mozart's residence, where he lived with his wife. And then on to the Museum of Modern Art. This sits atop a shear abutment high above the old town and provided an excellent vantage point to see and photograph the town.

View from the museum