At the end of the opening scene in the movie Sound of Music, Maria hears church bells that remind her she is late for mass. Those bells still ring all over Salzburg. We were delighted to find that our hotel was right across the street from a beautiful old church whose bells rang very hour…..and half hour …… and even at quarter to the hour. We were not so delighted when the bells rang at 6am on Sunday morning and then pulled out all the stops at 7am. I guess they wanted to make sure that everyone was up in time for church. Time to change hotels.
We ended up at a youth hostel that showed the Sound of Music every day at 10:30. On our second day we decided to skip the pricey organized tour and do it on our own. We started by watching the movie with a flock of backpackers in their twenties – some of whom had never seen it before. Can you imagine!
We set off on foot at the crack of 2pm with our trusty tour guide, Mitch, who had downloaded helpful commentary from various internet sites on the places where the movie was filmed. We chose a cloudy misty day for our tour so our first stop was for a brief picnic huddled under an archway near the horse fountain at Residenz Platz.
I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain…….
Most scenes from the movie were patched together from several locations and the story of the Sound of Music was only loosely based on the true story of the Von Trapps. One interesting fact we learned during the day was that Leopold’s Kron, where a few of the scenes from Captain Von Trapp’s house were filmed, was actually owned by Max Reinhardt, founder of the Salzburg Music Festival (Uncle Max in the film). Reinholdt was Jewish and had to surrender his home shortly after the Anschluss.
Here are some scenes reenacted by the Von Long Family Travelers with helpful lyrics below. You may have to watch the movie to double check our accuracy. You may also notice the absence of Bjorn from the pictures. As a thirteen-year-old, he is far too cool to be seen traipsing around Salzburg and hamming it up in front of random fountains. However, he did agree to be our photographer and director.
-Margit
Do, a deer…
Re, a drop of golden sun…
Me, a name I call myself…
As the mother superior sings:
Climb every mountain
Ford every stream
Follow every moonbeam
Till you find your dream
long4adventure
I love it! I LOL as I read your blog today. Enjoy, Jen
Excellent direction and cinematography, Bjorn. Way to ham it up, Emma!
Mike actually stayed at Max’s house for a week when he was invited to the Salzburg Seminar about 10years ago. Har det bra!
Hey Ya’ll,
Carolyn and I have been following your blog on weekends. Either Sat or Sun we wake up and read about your adventures. So glad for ya’lls narritive as it takes me w/you around the world.
Amelia is doing the college circuit and Kellen and Amelia must be 5’10” and 5’8″ respectively. Dog is 12 yrs and getting old 🙁 I love her so much it’s hard to see her stiffness EXCEPT I also experience this.
Take care, Nancy (Love ya’ll…hugs and kisses)