We spent our first morning in Salzburg doing one of The Sound of Music Tours. Before Micaela and James left for camp, I forced them to sit and watch highlights of the DVD so that the tour would be more meaningful to them as t had been a few years since they had last viewed it. After I fastforwarded a few times, the kids told me to stop so they could see all of it. When it was finished, I told them, "And then they moved to the U.S. When Micaela and James were little, we visited the Vermont town where the Trapp family lived, and the family actually sang at your grandmother Mimi's high school when she was a teenager." James did a double take and said, "Wait! You mean this was a
true story?" Sigh.
Our guidebook talked about two tours...
....the bigger Panorama tour on a full-sized bus (bigger crowd, more time spent getting on and off the bus, plus the potential embarrassment of riding on that bus)....
.....and Bob's Tour (private tour for the same price, more convenient). We followed the guidebook's recommendation and went with the Bob's private tour. Peter, our guide, picked us up at our hotel and right away gave his credentials: he's related to the von Trapps, as he called them "the Trapps." The Hungarian side of his family is connected to the Hungarian side of Captain von Trapp's mother's family. We were impressed.
He also immediately dispelled any hopes we had of being able to visit the top of the mountain where Maria sings
The Sound of Music. He explained that that spot is unaccessible by car and that Julie Andrews was plunked down on that mountain side from a helicopter.
Our first stop would be the Mirabell Gardens where much of the
Do-Re-Mi scenes were filmed. I posed the kids on the steps of the garden, each on a different step or "note" just like in the movie. Can you tell how game they were for all of this? I realized I had to lower my expectations of their enthusiasm or the tour would be ruined for me.
Just for comparison
Peter told us much about the filming of the movie and about the real story of the Trapp family. The movie was as accurate as it was inaccurate. Real Maria would take the children to classical concerts at the Mirabell Palace, and let them blow off steam in the gardens during intermissions.
By the way, Austrians prefer the German-language movie versions of the Trapp story. Two movies were made in the 1950s:
The Trapp Family and
The Trapp Family in America. Austrians hold the musical version in disdain and don't understand all the hullabaloo over it. In addition, I had mentioned this movie to a German neighbor before our trip and even hummed a few bars of
Do-Re-Mi to her, and she was mystified. Never heard of it. I was equally mystified. Surely
Do-Re-Mi is known around the world! Wouldn't every language have its own version? I guess not.
Our guide said something along the lines of, "You would think Austrians would have more appreciation for this movie. The country gets 80% of its income from tourism and
The Sound of Music has to be the most successful advertising campaign for a city in history."
There must be copyright or trademark issues at play here, too, because we didn't see a single
The Sound of Music souvenir anywhere -- no tacky plastic Maria in the alps snowglobes, no "I married my Captain von Trapp" t-shirts, no tote bags bearing the quote "I've been roaming about Salzburg, dressed up in nothing but some old drapes, and having a marvelous time!" Shame, really.
Running through the arbor
The film children marched around this pegasus statue. I could only persuade Emilie and Rebecca to do it. On video, Rebecca almost fell into the water. There were many groups of school children in the gardens and I think Micaela and James did not want to embarrass themselves.
View of Mirabell Gardens and Palace
In the Dwarf Park. The dozen statues in this park were modeled after real dwarfs who served the prince-archbishop who lived in the Palace.
View of Hohensalzburg Castle from the gardens. Construction of the fortress began in 1077.
The next stop was Hellbrunn Castle. This is the lane where film-Maria sings the last part of
I Have Confidence as she makes her way to the Trapp House.
The
Sixteen going on Seventeen gazebo is kept locked as Sound of Music fans kept leaping from bench to bench, resulting in many injuries. Shoot. I was planning on at least one of us leaping around in there. The gazebo was recently moved from it original home next to the palace that was used as the back of the Trapp house in the film. That building is now used primarily for lectures. Tourists visiting the gazebo were too disruptive, so the gazebo was relocated to the grounds of Hellbrunn Castle.
Peter, our tour guide, seemed a bit disappointed that the whole family didn't sing along with the soundtrack to the movie he played in the van. Emilie finally joined Peter and me in singing a bit, but in the end, I think people were tired. In retrospect, that big painted tour bus probably had a party atmosphere inside, with everyone happily singing along to the songs.
Peter also gave us information on other Austrian traditions, including the food and clothes. He told me that Austrians are proud of their lederhosen and dirndls and would be happy to pose for pictures. He also said that lederhosen are often worn to formal business meetings, as well as to church and at festivals. I couldn't help but ask a questions that was bugging me, "But, how do you wash them?" He answered that you take them to the cleaners, but the traditional way to wash them is to let them sit in a creek for a week and the flowing water and sand scrub the lederhosen clean.
As we continued our tour, it started to rain. And not a nice light rain. It poured.
Schloss Frohnburg, now the Mozart Music Academy, was used as the facade of the Trapp estate. We caught just a glimpse of the real Trapp estate, which the family left to an order of monks, during our tour. Recent plans to have their real home turned into a hotel fell through this past year.
I want to personally thank the genius who placed the red and blue "No stopping or standing on the roadway" sign dead-center in front of the house.
Leopoldskron Palace, owned by the real Uncle Max who established the Salzburg Festival. This back of this building was used as the back of the Trapp house. This is the lake where the film-children fell out of boat. According to our guide, the real-Trapps were attending a high society party at this house when the children got bored, climbed into a boat, capsized and returned to the party wet and muddy (the man-made lake is only 1 meter deep). I have to admit I have been unable to confirm this story anywhere else. But, it's a good story.
The studio copied the ballroom in this house as the the Trapp ballroom and the patio on the lake was used for the folk dance Maria and the Captain perform where sparks fly. Our guide said the marionette theater used in the movie was also in the house and this is the place the glass gazebo was moved from.
The 8th century Nonnberg Abbey where both real-Maria and film-Maria were novices, studying to become nuns.
Zooming down the lane where the film-children went tree climbing
Mondsee Cathedral where the wedding scene was filmed. If you watch this scene closely, you'll notice many women in the pews wearing traditional dirdls.
According to our guide, the real wedding was held at Nonnberg Abbey. Because Maria was still a novice, this was a delicate matter. The bishop gave her special permission to marry and hold the ceremony at the abbey (the only wedding held there in its 1,200-year history). Before the ceremony, Maria appeared in front the captain and bishop in her wedding gown, but wearing her novice's head-dress. The bishop removed the head-dress and the captain placed a wedding veil on her head.
Becca playing "got your nose!" with her daddy inside the church. I spent my time better, filming with the video camera as I marched down the center aisle.
We earned cups of coffee and hot chocolate on this chilly, rainy morning.
Our guide took us to a bakery-café reknowned for its Apfelstrudel. Real-Maria wrote in her journal of her love of the abbey's apfelstrudel which was served on meat-less Fridays, inspiring the line "crisp apple strudel" in the song
My Favorite Things. In fact, the film crew was not familiar with authentic apple strudel, so real-Maria, who was working as a consultant on the film and does appear briefly in it, had this bakery send apfelstrudel to the set.
There was a 25-year age difference between real Maria and Georg von Trapp, who had three children together.
And so, our 4-hour tour came to an end. Oh, you can't talk about
The Sound of Music and not talk about the ending. No, the family did not escape the Nazis by climbing over the Alps. But, it is true that the Captain (who really did call the children with a whistle) was expected to join the German navy and the family left with what they could carry in their backpacks, pretending to be going on one of their mountain hikes. They left Austria by train, first traveling to Italy and eventually making their way to the United States and musical history.
In the early 1600, Markus Sittikus von Hohenems, prince-archbishop of Salzburg, built Hellbrunn Castle outside the city as a summer residence.
Bex and David waiting for our tour of part of the grounds. This would be no ordinary tour. Sittikus apparently had a keen sense of humor and enjoyed practical jokes.
If you look closely, you can see that the boys at this table are getting sprayed by little fountains. But that's not the whole picture. Our tour guide told the boys beforehand that they had to stay in their seats with their hands on the table and could not move, no matter what. After all, this was a table where the Archbishop entertained guests and you could not get up from your seat unless the Archbishop did first.
Only once the tour guide allowed the boys to leave did the rest of us see that there was a stream of water shooting up the center of every seat -- every seat, that is, save the Archbishop's. And his guests could not move until the Archbishop did first.
And so the tour continued, past gardens and statues and you never knew when jets of water would suddenly burst to life and spray you. It made photographing a big tricky.
There were many moving figurines, as well, and all the fountains and figures were water-powered by the flow of a nearby stream.
David had Emilie and Rebecca wear raincoat, but none of the kids knew that we would be seeing the famous trick fountains of Hellbrunn when we arrived for the tour.
In this grotto, a crown was pushed up and down by a jet of water, symbolizing the rise and fall of power. It should be noted that at all of these "games" there is always a spot which is never wet: that was where the Archbishop stood or sat, which is today occupied by the tour guide.
Em and James trying to figure out the exact moment to leave the grotto.
Micaela taking her chances
James getting surprised by yet another hidden jet. The video of this tour consists of me saying things like, "Oh, look at that......AHHHHHHHHH! I'm getting soaked!"
Another feature was the mechanical, water-operated and music-playing theatre built in 1750 showing various professions at work.
James and Em
Water even shot out of the antlers and nose of this buck head.
We took a tour of the gardens as we waited for our clothes to dry. Thank goodness the rain had stopped earlier and it was much warmer by now than it was during the Sound of Music Tour.
James tossing Bex to the fish
And there was a playground on the property. Here we hummed the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark as James leapt from one train car to the next. He met two local boys at the park who asked for his phone number as we left and said, "You should call us the next time you're in Salzburg."
Em doing an imitation of a statue. The Sixteen going on Seventeen gazebo is right across the field from the playground.
Micaela bounced on one end of the tarp bridge and Em flew up on the other
Em's a great big sister.
