The "Sound of Music" Tour

Back of the Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron

Lake Town of St. Gilgen, Austria

We started our day by eating breakfast in the “Venetian Room” of the Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron. You know, the usual. This was the room that inspired the ballroom and the puppet show scenes in the Sound of Music naturally. Shortly after that, we were picked up for our “Sound of Music day-tour” by our local guide, Matthias with “Bob’s Special Tours” of Salzburg. He was young and cute and so us ladies were of course happy about that. We were basically then driven all around the city and Matt pointed out various places and facts about the movie. In addition to his commentary, he made sure to play all of the main songs from the movie as well.  Maryann was in heaven (and possibly falling in love, haha) and while yes it was incredibly cheesy, it was also a lot of fun. After the singing, we stopped at the lakefront near our hotel. It was a sight on the tour since it's where they filmed the backyard scenes, and I felt legit because we were staying there already. Oh yeah.

Next up, we drove to the lake town of St. Gilgen. There we ate some dessert at a café overlooking the beautiful lakes and mountains in the background. We saw a bunch of picturesque farms, and then stopped briefly to slide down an “Alpine Luge”. It reminded me of the Alpine Slide in Gatlinburg, just more scenic.  After taking in those amazing views, we drove to a quaint town called Mondsee. Here we got to go inside the cathedral used for Maria and Captain Von Trapp’s wedding scene in The Sound of Music. It is a gorgeous church, both in the movie and in real life. After some souvenir shopping in the cute little town, our group (just 6 of us) headed back towards central Salzburg.

Exterior of Mondsee

The "Do-Re-Mi" Fountain

Back in town, we stopped at the Mirabell Gardens. This is where many of the scenes from the Do-Re-Mi song were filmed. Rachel and I of course posed with everything and tried our hand at re-enacting a part of the children’s dance as well. We also saw the legendary I am Sixteen Going on Seventeen gazebo. It was so cool to see these things I’ve seen for years on a movie screen, but in real life! I’m not sure why but it was strangely emotional going to these places with my Mom. Maybe it’s because I grew up sharing my love of the movie with her and my Grandma (who just passed away this March). Either way, it was really awesome for me to have the opportunity to do this. The tour ended here, but us three ladies walked around the grounds some more and took some great flower photos.

SEW.. a Needle Pulling Thread!

Back in town, we decided to go to the market and do a picnic dinner again (in hopes of saving some money). At this point, I began basically dying from my allergies, so we had to shop fast. We went to Corso again and got some cheese, fruit and bread. We took it back to the hotel and sat outside on the balcony enjoying our amazing view. Nothing could spoil the beautiful backdrop of our dinner, except allergies and mosquitoes! Until tomorrow, auf wiedersen!