The Hills are Alive (or How Can You Not Love a City Like Salzburg)

I have two favorite movies: LA Story and the Sound of Music. When I was planning this trip, I really wanted to go to Munich. Then, I learned that Salzburg was only a 90 minute train ride away so, I knew that I must visit the place were one of the best movies of all time was filmed. Supposedly, this town of 150,000 receives about 400,000 visitors/year (or something like that) because of this movie. With recommendation of my unofficial tour planner, Rick Steves, I selected Panorama’s Tour 4 hour version.
I boarded a large 50-passenger bus, painted with Sound of Music Tour marking so, EVERYONE knew what was going on inside the bus. Might I also mention, the Sound of Music is not popular in Austria…. My tour guide, Trudy, was from England and was extremely animated. She is a fan of the movie and led us in many sing-a-longs during the course of the tour.
Our first sight was her pointing out the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which served as a backdrop for several scenes during the movie. It is a very prominent site in Salzburg so, using it in the movie was inevitable.
Next, Trudy directed us to the Untersberg Mountain, which was the mountain Maria was supposed to be on in the beginning of the movie and the one the family actually hiked on at the end.
We were then transported to the lake and terrace that was used for many scenes, including the children meeting Baroness.
The next stop was a park that housed the original pavilion used in one of my favorite scenes, where the Captain admits to Maria that he loves her and they sing “Something Good.” The pavilion was moved from its original location because of tourist. It is also the one use for exterior scenes, the interior was shot on a Hollywood sound stage.
The park also has the location for the path Maria skips down singing “I Have Confidence” and the home exterior.
We were then driven out to the countryside of Austria to a town called Mondsee. There we saw the church where Maria and the Captain were married. Also, we had the option to shop and dine on fabulous apple struedel.
Viewing the countryside and the lake were reason enough to take this tour…
Our final stop was Mirabell Gardens, where we were able to act our the “Do Re Mi” scenes.

This tour was really a fan’s dream come true…
Not to mention, we passed the headquarters of Red Bull… Thecla, this photo is for you...