The Sound of Music-- a pretty classic movie I would say-- did you know that Austrians don't really even know what it is? Yeah, apparently "sound of music" doesn't translate into German or something, so they have another version of the story. But without all the catchy tunes, unfortunately for them! However, thankfully for me and my fellow English speakers, we have the great movie AND a tour that goes with it! For about 30 euros, we did the touristy thing and hopped on a brightly painted bus and saw a bunch of locations they used for the movie (and of course learned about Maria's story on the way).After breakfast, we watched the movie (the hostel played it everyday on the wide screen tv) and I enjoyed it- it was a lot better than I remembered! We had plenty of time to get over to the plaza where the tour left from and conveniently, there was even a lady right there selling a variety of pretzels for lunch! We ate our pizza pretzels outside then decided we should get on the bus at some point and try for a good seat. Then, we were on our way!
The first stop was the lake where scenes at the back of the house were filmed, including when Maria and Capt. Von Trapp dance, where Maria and the kids all fall into the lake and where the kids all hung off the trees, picking fruit (or something like that). We didn't spend that much time there, just long enough to take some crazy pictures then it was back on the bus!Salzburg was set up kind of interestingly from the other side of the castle- it was pretty much flatness and fields. (I guess the city was pretty flat too, but there were no buildings or trees on the side we were on). Anyway, we drove by the "front" of the house location (where Maria sings "I have confidence" and where the family tries to sneak out with the car at the end) which was pretty much in the middle of a field and not really near the lake either. We also saw the Abbey, which is on top of the big hill with the castle- interesting fact- none of the movie was filmed inside the Abbey only the scenes at the gate were the actual building!
Next stop was the gazebo- "I am 16 going on 17"- yep, where Liesl and Rolfe danced a little and sang a bit. However... it was locked shut because a few years ago, an 86 year old lady was pretending to be Liesl, slipped off the bench (or just missed it) and ended up with a broken hip!
We left Salzburg at this point and took a nice drive into the mountains and ended up at my *gold star location* of probably all of Europe: a summer toboggan run! At first I decided I didn't want to pay for it. I sat for about 5 minutes, then eventually changed my mind (1- I am in Europe. 2- I have done winter tobogganing, but not summer. 3- it's not even €4 4- it looks like a ton of fun) and Sarah and I were all in. She gave her camera to our tour guide, and I kept mine then we hooked up the toboggan, took a seat and got pulled to the top!The view:
We decided that to do this thing right, we had to go full speed the entire way down. I volunteered to be the driver, so I got to be in the front. I tried to be as slow as I could so there would be lots of space between us and the lady in front of us (who was telling her kids that she would be slow, so she would be behind them). We clambered on... and then we were off! Little less than halfway down, we had to screech to a halt because Slow Lady and her 3 kids were stopped for some unknown reason (I guessed that someone fell off, so everyone stopped so they wouldn't run him over). Fortunately, no one was right behind us, so after they all started to go again I had some time to let them get a good head start. Then, as some grandparents came around the corner behind us, I let'er rip and didn't brake until we were in danger of crashing into the end of the course!
I think people could hear us down at the bottom of the mountain- we were yelling and hooting the whole way down and just having a good time! It was so much fun- I would recommend this tour, even a trip to the city of Salzburg to take this tour so you can toboggan. Seriously! After that amazing-ness,
we piled back on the bus, took a quick stop at a really beautiful spot that overlooked a town called St. Gilgen and a lake, Lake Wolfgang, then drove to the pretty town of Modsee.
Modsee was another film location, this time used for the wedding scene of Maria and the Captain. (Obviously, it wasn't filmed in the Abbey, since no filming was allowed there.) The cathedral was nice. It was yellow (unusual!) but it fit in with the other buildings around the town, which were brightly painted. We had about 45 minutes to wander around, so I took some pictures and Sarah got apple strudel then it was back on the bus and back to Salzburg!Once we were back in town, we wandered around for a LONG time looking for the beergarden our tour guide recommended. We got some help and finally found the place. I was very excited to finally have some real, traditional Bavarian food! We ate outside next to a live band. It was really great! After dinner, Sarah and I took a stroll along the river and enjoyed the nice weather. This was pretty much a great day. The tour was super (it was enhanced by the fact we had seen it immediately before taking the tour AND they played the soundtrack during the drive), the weather was amazing, and the scenery was gorgeous. (It actually reminded me a lot of NH- except the Alps made it much more dramatic than home.)
