The Terrible Catsafterme

After the nauseating experience of Dachau, I felt a little guilty about us popping into a German McDonalds located not a mile away from the site of the concentration camp. Jimmy was hesitant to stop at all seeing that we had spent an extra half hour at Dachau than we had budgeted. The plan was to spend two hours from 11am-1pm driving our rental car from Dachau to Salzburg, Austria on the afternoon of Saturday, July 18, our last day in Europe. The McDonalds was my first in Europe. It was tasty, but the drive didn’t go as smoothly as the food went down. 

Happy again with a bag of German McDonald’s food

Although the Sound of Music tour that we were scheduled to take didn’t begin until 2pm and Jimmy had buffered in an extra hour, the ride was frantic. We all blamed ourselves for staying an extra 30 minutes and then stopping for food, but the real culprit was the intense, slow-moving traffic as we inched our way between the two cities. Turns out that weekend traffic is often disastrous as German Europeans often head to the Italian beaches for ‘holiday’ on the weekends – and we were caught right in the middle of it.

Even once we got into Salzburg, the traffic was hideous. We remarkably made it about ten minutes after 2pm…just in time to watch our tour bus pull away as Jimmy frantically looked for parking. However the proprietors at Panorama Tours offered a silver lining to our proverbial cloud. They loaded us, along with another couple who was late, into their van and caught us up with the tour bus. There we met our tour guide John, a nice guy from Los Angeles who reminded me of Nathan Lane. 

The Sound of Music tour was just what it sounded like: film locations in Salzburg where scenes form the 1965 Academy Award Winning Best Picture The Sound of Music were filmed. Like most Americans, I grew up enjoying this film as a child in the good old days when broadcasts of films such as these were events to stay home for. When we met up at the tour bus, they were already at the first location.

Schloss Leopoldskron, or Leopold’s Crown Palace, was not actually featured in the film, but it was the inspiration for the terrace scenes at the Captain’s villa, as well as the ballroom scenes inside the palace. But the terrace scenes were filmed on a the adjacent property with a reproduction of the terrace overlooking the same lake, the one in which Maria and the kids fall into from their canoes. The palace had been owend by the King of Bavaria at one point.

Reproduction terrace overlooking the lake, filmed next to the Crown Palace

From the opposite side of the lake, with the Palace, now private property

Also filmed on the Palace property were the scenes at the gazebo where Rolf and Liesl sang Sixteen Going on Seventeen and Maria and the Captain sang Something Good. At the end of filming, the gazebo was donated to the city of Salzburg and relocated to the grounds of Hellbrunn Palace park nearby. This was our next stop on the tour.

The gazebo as seen in the film…on the property of Leopold’s Crown Palace

The same gazebo, now relocated to Hellbrun Palace Park

I was a bit disappointed that we did not stop to see Frohnburg Castle. This served as the extrerior of the Von Trapp house – ironically with the front serving as the rear in the film, and the rear serving as the front of the house when Maria arrives. We drove by the area and I snapped a picture, but the only thing recognizable thing in my photo is the familiar yellow wall by which Maria walks as she arrives at the house singing I Have Confidence. Incidentally and totally off the subject, we also passed the the business headquarters of Red Bull.

Maria sings along the walls and gate of the Von Trapp residence

Her view of the front of the house, actually the rear of Frohnburg Castle

Our only view of the Castle. Only the yellow walls look familiar.

These sites were spotted during a lengthy party of our travels that took us to Mondsee, about 45 minutes north of Salzburg. On the way, I enjoyed an Austrian beverage called Almdudler, which was sort of a ginger ale / apple juice combo. We also stopped for a very nice panormaic view of the Austrian country side, noting the mountain on which they filmed the beginning of the Do-Re-Mi song in the film.

An Almdudler interlude

A breathtaking view of the mountains and countryside of Austria

When we arrived in Mondsee at about 4:15, we were given about an hour to walk around, browse the shops, get something to eat, and see the only location here from The Sound of Music, the Collegiate Church. I purchased my obligatory Austria magnet and then we walked over to the church. Most of the shots in the film were taken of the interior of the church, doubling for the Abbey where Maria had been a novice nun. One quick shot of the exterior of the church was also filmed (as seen below). Inside the church, I picked up some bottles of holy water to bring home as souvenirs. After visiting the church, the Wileys and I stopped at a charming little outdoor eatery called the Cafe Konditorei Braun, and enjoyed a nice cheese strudel with vanilla ice cream.

A shameless Mozart candy standee greets me on the streets of Mondsee

 The only view of the exterior of the church from the film

At the Collegiate Church in Mondsee, the spires since remodeled

Frame from the film of the interior of the church used in the glorious Von Trapp wedding

Inside the church, a little lower

The Wileys and I enjoy a nice snack in Mondsee

We then headed back to our bus for the 45-minute trip back to Salzburg, along the way viewing some of the scenes from the film on the bus’ video monitor that would have been more helpful to view before we arrived at them! Here we were dropped off at the Panorama Tour Headquarters, a mere outdoor kiosk. Little did we know when we arrived that we had been right next to the Mirabell Gardens the entire time, which offered my favorite of all the locations in the film: the various sites where the children sang Do-Re-Mi, in what is surely one of the most memorable numbers in the film. The tour had officially ended, but we explored this area on our own.

 Do, a deer, a female deer…Re, a drop of golden sun…

At the pegasus fountain from the opposite angle

Mi, a name I call myself…

In the familiar Hedge-covered Archway

Fa, a long long way to run…

With the athletic figures at the entrace to Mirabell Gardens

So, a needle pulling thread…

At the wrong side of the Mirabell Gardens grand fountain

La, a note to follow So…

With the panting gnome figure that each kid had to touch as they walked by

Ti, a drink with jam and bread…which will bring us back to Do

Up and down those famous stairs…which brings us back to Do…and the famous Pegasus Fountain in the background

It was certainly a pleasure to view all of these filming locations from one of my favorite childhood classics, all within the confines of the beautiful and exotic country of Austria. We would do a little more roaming of Salzburg, before it was time to think about the dreaded preparations for heading home.

The European vacation will conclude in the next posting…

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 6:48 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Film Locations, Historical Locations, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.