Before I continue the trip stuff, my sister brought to my attention that I failed to mention HOW Brendan broke his arm...school playground, rain, slippery boots and play equipment...apparently not a good combo for Brendan. He fell and wasn't able to catch himself.
Okay, on to day 2 of our trip!
We woke up and headed downstairs to have breakfast - a very nice buffet I must say. At this point, I have to mention...the Radisson Blu we were staying in is also a conference center and the conference that was going on was...are you ready...an Orthopedic Conference. Yep, how appropriate. We figured they may ask to use Brendan as an example - ha ha ha!
Anyway, after breakfast, we went over to the front desk to wait for our ride to take us to the Unique Sound of Music Tour - this is awesome - the tour picks us up at the hotel and takes us over to where the tour leaves at Mirabell Gardens (which, by the way, part of the movie was filmed). The tour heads out right on time and we are lucky to have Sue as our guide and Martin is our bus driver - a great combination! Sue is fun and enthusiastic and obviously loves her job! Throughout the tour, she shares the facts and true story of Maria Von Trapp and the movie version. She also tells stories from the filming and we see various places that parts of the movie were filmed. Here is a list:
Mirabell Garden - where Maria and the children were singing Do-Re-Mi and dancing through the gardens in the movie
The Gazebo (now housed in the gardens of Hellbrunn Palace) - where Liesl and Rolf share their first kiss and Maria and the Baron sing "Something Good"
Palace of Leopoldskron - this is where the scenes on the terrace and the boating in the lake scene were filmed
Nonnberg Abbey - from both the true story and the movie - in real life, Maria and the Baron were married here
St. Gilgen/Lake Wolfgang - picturesque area in opening sequence of movie
Church of Mondsee - this was the location of the movie wedding between Maria and the Baron. Also in this area is where the children climbed the trees
And before you ask...yes, I took pictures of every place! I can only put 5 pictures on each blog, so I will just choose a few!
After this tour ended around 1:00, we walked back through Mirabell Gardens and then headed over to the funicular to go up to Fortress Hohensalzburg (which you can also see in several scenes of the movie.) From the fortress you can look out over "Old" Salzburg and see for miles! There is also a tour where you can get a glimpse at the old chapel and see artifacts and items from as far back as the 11th century when the fortress was built. There are restaurants and lookout points as well as the museum at the fortress. We rode the funicular up, but walked back down right into one of the big plaza squares.
From there, we went in search of dinner and ended up eating at the StieglBrau where we enjoyed more wonderful Austrian food (we are hooked)! After that, it was time to head to the hotel to turn in for the night with two worn out kids and two worn out parents as well!
It was a fun day and we saw tons of beautiful sights with more to come tomorrow!
Stay tuned...
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