Salzburg- Day 2

This morning I did the Sound of Music tour. Awesome! I was glad I watched the movie last night, it made it that much cooler. It was a small tour, only 7 people, and I loved the guide. We started out with the sights in the city, and not only did we learn all about the sights, the cast, the crew, and the story of the real Trapp family, but we also got a tour of the city with history, so it was well worth it.

Like I said, we started off in the city center so we saw the plazas that were prominent in the movie (where the soldiers marched through, where Maria and the kids danced through the streets...), and I put pictures of those up yesterday.

Then we went out of the city a bit to Hellbrunn Castle, a beautiful castle in a beautiful park. The glass gazebo now stands there (was on private property when the movie was filmed, then was moved to Hellbrunn for tourists).

The "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" gazebo:

Hellbrun Castle:

Next we went to see the house that was used for the exterior shots of the front of the house. Its privately owned so we couldnt go up to it, but we could see it from the road.

The house used in the movie for exterior shots:

Then we saw the house that they used for the back of the house (the gardens, the patio, the lake with the boating scene). It is called Leopoldskron Castle. It is in a beautiful location, with mountains and a lake and everything. Really pretty. Also privately owned now. The gazebo used to stand next to it. Notice Salzburg castle in the background. The mountains are behind me.

Porch scenes:

Our last stop in Salzburg was to see the abbey, Nonnberg Abbey, where the real Maria lived and where they filmed the scenes. I might go in there tomorrow.

Nonnberg Abbey:

Then we went out of Salzburg to go to Mondsee, where a bunch of scenes were filmed. But on the way, we saw some stunning scenery. One place was St. Gilgen and Lake Wolfgang.

Beautiful scenery:

Mondsee was about half an hour away from Salzburg so on the way our guide told us more information, and, of course, we listened to the soundtrack from the movie. I was sitting next to the guide so we chatted, and that was fun.

Mondsee is a really quaint little town on a lake. This is where the church is from the wedding scene (though in real life they got married in Nonnburg Abbey) and the row of trees that the kids climbed to wave at the car, along with a couple other scenes.

Church where the wedding scene was filmed:

Row of trees where the kids waved at the car:

We had an hour to see the town, eat lunch, etc, so I wandered around for a while, then bought lunch and ate it at the lake. It was a very pleasant hour.

View while I ate lunch:

We got back to Salzburg at 1:30. It dropped us off at the Mirabell Gardens, but like I said yesterday, I had already seen those. I was going to rent a bike but it actually started raining (it was nice for the tour though), so Ill do that another day. I went to this internet cafe to type this up instead. Now Im going to go to the Mozart museum I think, then Dillon and I are going to try to video chat (today is our 3 year anniversary). A concert tonight at the cathedral, then I guess planning how Im going to get back to Edinburgh...