The Movie that made Salzburg Famous--The Sound of Music

This tour was another "pinch me and tell me that I really am here" moment. The Sound of Music movie has been a top 5 movie of mine since....well since it came out in 1965. I was in the 5th grade when I saw the movie for the first time. 

And I am so thrilled that my daughters are BIG FANS as well, and now our little Granddaughter loves it too. I loved this colorful bus!!!

Our first stop was here at the Schloss Leopoldskron Palace. This Palace was built in 1736...can you even believe that????In 1918 the co-founder of the Salzburg Music Festival purchased it. Prior to that it was home to the original owner the Prince-Archbishop and the King of Baveria.The palace was used for the terrace scenes at the rear of the Captain's Villa overlooking the lake. This is also the spot where Maria and the children stood up in the boat causing it to tip over and poor little Gretl nearly drowned during filming.

So happy it was a bright sunny day as the reflection in the lake is stunning. The House, the mountains, the clouds all look so perfect in the pic. Stacie and I just stood there in disbelief!!!!

So happy my hubby came along and by the end of the tour, I think I caught him singing along!!!

Our next stop was at the Glass Gazebo. This is where Rolf and Liesl sang "Sixteen going on Seventeen" and Maria and the Captain sang "Something Good". It is obviously locked for security reasons, but we all( the girls anyway) had a good time skipping about the outside perimeter!!Some people thought it looked smaller then the movie, it was the exact size I expected. This day is already very Good in my book!!!

Stacie did skip, I just promised not to take pics of her skipping!!!

Since the Nonnberg Abby is still an active abbey, you are not allowed inside. These pics were taken from our  tour bus. The Red Onion Dome is still considered an architectural jewel.

They sold snacks on the bus and Stacie and I had Almdudler, it is a popular Austrian Soda, it is grape and apple juice carbonated. Another popular soda in Germany we tried was a Spezi, which is Coca Cola and Orange fanta soda mixed together. It really was good, you just have to get used to it being served cool at best.

We loved seeing the movie on the bus and singing along to the songs!!

Caught ya!!!!!So fun!!!

The corporate offices for Red Bull are located in a beautiful community outside of Salzburg.

A beautiful Overlook we stopped at near Fuschl am See, I can just imagine Maria singing and twirling on those magnificent mountain tops.

A May Day, Maypole. Maypole dancing is a folk dance from Europe mostly. The history of the Maypole and the dance is quite interesting, I will leave it at that and let you google it for the history of the maypole!!!

A Castle we passed. Again, all over Europe you quite possible will pass several castles and or palaces each day.

We are nearing our destination of Mondsee, Austria.

The picturesque market square, this town is simply amazing, loved the colorful buildings.

 

The Parish Church of Mondsee was used for the inside shots of the wedding scenes, in real life Captain Von Trapp and Maria were married in the Nonnberg Abbey. The Abbey church was not large enough  for filming so the Mondsee Parish was chosen for obvious reasons, large enough and it is very beautiful with it's romantic touches throughout.

See what I mean???Simply stunning

Ok, time to sit down and have a little snack and a drink and people watch!!!

I chose this berry topped muffin.

Hubby picked a danish.

loved all the crowns!!

After our bus tour ended, we decided to walk to a few sights close by!!!The first was Mirabell Palace and gardens.These steps were where the children sang Do-Re-Mi. Probably one of the most famous scenes in the movie, remember Maria and the children used the steps as notes on a musical scale, jumping from one step to the next as if they were actual notes!!I loved the scene where Maria is rubbing her head. I had to do it!!!

Let's see is she standing on Fa or Sew?????

I believe I am standing on TEA!!

If Sound of Music sights had not been filmed here I still would have visited this garden, it is so beautiful.

The Pegasus Fountain is where Maria and the children Marched around it. For some strange reason my Grand daughter is obsessed with Unicorns(she found one at Church in class) and has loved them ever since. So she loves looking at this picture!!

The Ivy Covered arch-way is a long rose and ivy covered arbor, the children had fun dancing and running races while exploring the gardens while singing Do-Re-Mi

Then we headed over to the Zwerglgarten(Dwarf) garden. This is the dwarf the kids patted on the head as they skipped along singing. There was once 28 of these little statues, but over time they were sold off, but the city has since gotten several of them back for it's cultural heritage.

The Central Fountain of Mirabel Garden is where the children were filmed circling around it. There are 4 large sculptures represent Fire, Water, Earth and Air. There is one behind me, but cannot tell which one it is.

These 2 large sculptures at the entrance to the garden are known as the fist fighters, the children all imitated them as they ran by singing.

From the garden  we walked over to the Salzburg Marionette theater. They still do performances here.

Remember the scene when the children performed a Marionette play for their Father??????The lonely Goatherd was the play the children put on.

Salzburg is also the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, so classical music is heard all over this marvelous city.

This was  his home later on in life.

After all that, we were ready for dinner and asking around the popular place to go was a Church!!!!So off we went, the city is divided in half by this river. But it is a beautiful walking city.

The large Fortress on top of the hill is called Hohensalzburg Fortress .You also see the large Dome Cathedral.

This is the Franciscan Church.

This restaurant/Beer Garden was once home to a Monastery.

Alot of touches of it's old inhabitants remain!!

The place was packed!!!

We had ribs, a baked potato, cole slaw, pretzels and olives!!

That is the name of the place!!

Walking back to our hotel, what a lovely city at Sunset.We stopped and got some gelato for our walk back!Tomorrow we are going to ride the public bus and do some more sight seeing!!!!