August 25, 2015

Well, Adam has now full-filled his life long goal of going on the Sound of Music tour!  We went on a bike tour of the city that focuses on the filming locations from The Sound of Music.  We had an awesome guide and doing the tour by bike was much more fun than just sitting on a bus listening to a headset.  We started in the center of the city where we had a beautiful view of the Hohensalzburg Castle, the river, and the surrounding areas.  From here, we continued through the city up to Nonnberg Abbey where the real Maria was training to be a nun and where some parts of the movie were filmed.  It was pretty neat to see the actual places.  Very little has changed since the filming, so it pretty much looks the same.  There was also a great view of the mountains from up here.

Next, we went to St Peter’s Abbey which is considered to be the oldest abbey still in operation today.  This was where they got the inspiration for the crypt scene where the Von Trapps are hiding behind the gates in the cemetery when the Nazis are looking for them.  They were not allowed to film inside of here, so they had to build a set for the actual filming.

From there, we rode to Schloss Leopoldskron where they used the garden and lake view of the palace for the garden scenes.  Although they liked the lake view, they thought that house (palace) looked to big to be the house of a Naval Captain, so they used the yellow house that is scene in the film (although the inside wasn’t used…just the outside).

Going from the city area out into the country, we HAD to make a stop in an open field to do The SOund of Music opening scene twirl!  We had fun!!  🙂  The actual place where this was filmed is up in the mountain and it’s private property, so people can’t go there.  😦

Another stop along the tour was the big fountain where Maria splashes the horse as she is going to the Von Trapp house singing “Confidence”.  We got to play in the fountain for a few minutes and get some good pictures.

The last stop was at Hellbrunn Castle where they have the gazebo that was used for a couple of the scenes.  You can’t go inside of it, but it’s pretty cool to see.  Hayden even got to climb a tree just like the kids in the movie!

At the end of the tour, we came back to Mirabel Gardens and had a chance to walk around on our own to see where they filmed the “Do Re Mi” part of the movie.  It was a really nice garden, so we even stopped to have lunch inside.

The next day, we crossed back into Germany (although only by a mile or two) to go visit the Salt Mines.  We weren’t really sure what it was all about, but it was really cool!  We got to dress up in coveralls and take a train into the mines.  From there, we had to go on two different slides to go deeper into the mines.  They give a good overview of how the salt is actually mined.  I had no idea what went into the process!  In order to get the salt, the drill a huge hole and fill it with water creating a giant pool.  Over the course of several years, the salt is absorbed into the water and they eventually pump out the salt water.  They cook off the water and area left with all of the salt.  We got to taste the water in the lake/pool and it was VERY salty!

On our way back from the salt mines, we stopped at a spot where we planned to hike up to an ice cave, but it turned out that it was a 4 hour hike, so we scrapped that idea and just spent a couple of hours going for a more leisurely hike.  We found a nice spot by a river where Hayden and Adam built bridges and jumped over the waterfalls.  It was a lot of fun!

We eventually made it back into town and made a quick stop and Mozart’s birth place and the house where he grew up.  We didn’t go to the museum, but we felt like we at least had to go by it since we were in Salzburg.

From here, we decided to add Milan to our itinerary so that we can spend a few days at the World’s Fair.  It will be a good time for all of us and Hayden especially, is super excited!