Pania Discovers That Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music

Monday September 6th

Mondays are often days where a lot of things are closed in the big cities so taking an out of town tour today seemed a good option. This is not something they have done a lot so it was a nice change. They were picked up by shuttle right from the campsite and whisked into town to join the coach.

The tour guide was from England, and got a bit irritating at times with her attempts at being funny and dramatic but she had excellent knowledge and not only showed the highlights of the film but also the historical and architectural landmarks of the city. The first stop was the Leopoldskron Palace where the front exterior was used as the Trapp family home and also the lake where they were boating and fell into the water. The glass gazebo specially made for the film had to moved from here as too many fans were visiting it all hours of the day and night and jumping around the seats. It is now relocated in the gardens of Hellbrun Palace and remains locked. We did visit it though. High up on the hill was the Nonnberg Abbey which was used for the opening scenes in the movie where the nuns were going to mass and the famous Untgersbergahn mountain in the distance. Maria supposedly took two minutes to run back to the abbey after being in the hills; it was a good 2 hours walk away! It is the oldest convent in the German speaking part of Europe and it was the actual convent the real Maria went to and the place where she and the Baron were married in real life.

There was then a pleasant drive through typical Austrian countryside to the Lake District. Scenery shown at the beginning of the movie was filmed at Lake Fuschul on the way to St Giligen, and there was an opportunity for a photo stop to admire the beautiful village of Salzkammergut. The main stop was in the village of Mondsee to visit the church where the wedding scene was filmed. It was the highlight of the trip. It was a beautiful sunny day and this village was picturesque against the blue sky. The church itself is 17th century and very richly decorated. The actual organ in the church was used for the movie. There was time to eat here and have a good look around. Back on the coach they played a video which put all the locations into the context of the movie which was really good. Throughout the tour they played the original soundtrack in appropriate places and invited everyone to sing along.

The Austrians and Germans really know little of the Sound of Music movie and most have not seen it. Originally there was a German movie that was made about the Family Von Trapp. This would have been a lot more authentic and true to life than the Hollywood version. However 6 million visitors a year come to Salzburg and most come to follow the Mozart trail or the Sound of Music locations. It was a bit cheesy at times but well worth doing.



When they got back to the depot it was only a short time before the second tour left to the Bavarian Mountains and Salt Mines. This was taken in a minivan with a tour guide and four other tourists. BerLin had been feeling very homesick and was really missing Germany. Luckily he got to go on this tour today and in no time at all they had crossed the border from Austria into Germany and started to travel up into the Bavarian Alps. The tour started by going via the Alpenstrasse and travelled parallel to the King’s Lake river to the Oberalzsberg. From a distance high up on a peak they could see the famous Eagles Nest; Hitler’s summer conference centre. You can take a tour up there in the mornings with the same tour company which uses special busses to do the final climb. One of the tourists had read the brochure wrongly and thought this tour went right up there and he wasn’t happy.
This was primarily the Salt Mines tour. On arrival they had to put on traditional miners clothing to provide warmth and protection in the mine. Then they all boarded a special train to take them into the mine. It was quite a long ride through a narrow lit passage. The tour guide spoke German but they had an audio guide with the English version to listen to. These mines have been working for over 450 years and are still producing salt. The best bit was the huge wooden slides that they had to slide down to get to the lower levels. They went down in groups of between 2 and 4 and it was fast and fun. The miners used these highly polished slides as a means of getting down the mines. There is a long end at the bottom that gives you time to slow down and get off. On the way down they take a photo of you and at the end they bought theirs, as it was quite good and really showed the slide. There waslots to see and it was all very fascinating seeing the displays and machinery. The journey ends with a beautiful raft sail across a salt lake in the dark with visual effects. A cable car takes you back up the levels you have come down by slide and a fast train ride brings you back to the surface. It was educational and fun.



The final part of the afternoon was spent in the village of Berchtesgaden high up in the alps. Here they had had the cold snap experienced by all of us last week. It had got down to zero and snowed in the mountains, and there was some still visible. Apparently it had been very unseasonably cold in Austria and Germany as well.

Back in town they were a bit lost as they hadn’t a map or the list of buses to catch back to the camp. However they did manage to walk to the railway station where there was a very helpful girl who spoke English in the info centre and she told them exactly which bus to catch and where it left from and also which stop they needed for the camp. They found it easily, the bus was about to leave so there was no waiting. It turns out they are not too far out of town and the bus stops nearly right outside the camp. They also noticed a little supermarket at the stop before so they walked back to it and got some supplies,