What trip to Salzburg would be complete without a "Sound of Music" tour?…read more
On our recent trip to Germany and Austria with five of our adult children and six grandchildren, we took the tour offered by Panorama Tours. Everyone came away absolutely enchanted!
I know, I know: it sounds a little cheesy. And a four-hour bus tour sounds like a lot. But it was actually a lot less hokey, a lot more informative, and considerably lower-key than we expected.
Except for the singing. You can't have a Sound of Music tour without singing some of the movie's most famous tunes.
The tour departs from the Panorama kiosk next to the Andräkirche across from the Mirabell Gardens, where several of the movie's scenes were filmed. But that will come later. First, the introductions.
Our tour guide was a gentleman named José who came to Salzburg from Costa Rica. He was delightful and engaging from the start, offering us several ways to remember his name. "What is the name for pants in German?" he asked. "Hosen" is the answer, so that's one way. Another, "If I say something you don't quite believe, is to shout 'No way, José!'" They both worked.
With his light-hearted approach, José set about telling us about the movie and the artistic license filmmakers took with the real story of the von Trapp family.
One of our first stops included Hellbrunn Castle, which is home to the gazebo in the famous love scene, "Sixteen Going on Seventeen." Here, two of our grandkids did their own take on that sequence.
The gazebo was originally located at the Schloss Leopoldskron but was moved to its current location because the large number of tourists who wanted to see it proved overwhelming to the palace. The back side of the palace, which faces the lake, represented the rear of the von Trapp villa in the movie.
Schloss Frohnburg on the Hellbrunner Allee was also used for the exterior shots of the von Trapp villa.
The grand church where the Capt. von Trapp and Maria marry in the movie, the Basilika St Michael in the town of Mondsee in Salzburg's Lake District, is one of many stops on the tour. Guests can visit the church, peruse some souvenir shops and grab a bite of lunch before heading back into Salzburg.
In real life, the couple married in the church of the Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg, which Maria had entered as a postulant intending to become a nun. However, she was later sent to care for von Trapp's children, became their governess and eventually married Capt. von Trapp.
On the road to and from the town of Mondsee, our tour bus passed the worldwide headquarters of the energy drink Red Bull. Many of those on the tour were disappointed that it was not one of our stops.
In addition to using more picturesque buildings rather than the real locations, there were other liberties taken for dramatic effect. For example, the von Trapp family's escape from Austria did not involve climbing across the Alps into Switzerland.
The mountain they climb in the movie is not part of the Alps and borders Germany, not Switzerland. In addition, the famous musical family was carrying heavy suitcases along with their musical instruments. Pretending to go on a vacation, they left quietly by train for Italy before coming to the U.S. by way of London. And while they were certainly on the Nazis' radar, Nazi troops were not waiting outside their residence as they stole away into the night.
Heading back into Salzburg, José led us in some of the more popular songs as we made our way to the Mirabell Gardens, our last stop. Several scenes were filmed there, including the performance of "Doe: a Deer," which two of our daughters felt obliged to recreate in their own inimitable style under statues used in the movie. Yes, the background is different than in the movie but the movie was filmed more than 60 years ago and things do change...
Because it was winter, we chose the 9:15 a.m. tour. At four hours in duration, it would be dark before the 14:00 (2 p.m.) tour ended. In the summertime, it won't make much difference. Just be sure not to miss it!
