Wednesday, August 12

Photos to follow

Today we are off on the Sound of Music Tour. Yes, Salzburg is where Julie Andrews sing her way across the screen and made the movie the most popular musical film of all time. The town lives, eats and breathes it. It was on a bus and four hours long. 

The tour took us to places where the film was made and showed that what you see on the screen may not be what it seems. Oh and I thought they were real.😳😳 

Went to  to look at the rotunda where the I am Sixteen scene was performed. Did not look that small in the film because most of it was shot indoors in a bigger one.

 Stopped at Mondsle for coffee and a look at the church where the wedding took place. Leaving there we travelled through the mountains to look at four of the lakes in this area. Some if them are 100 metres deep. One us only 60 metres deep and during the summer mont he the temperature is a constant 30 degrees due to the immense surface area.

On the way to the lakes we passed the home of the owner if Red Bull, Dietrich Mateschitz, who gives heaps of money to the local community because he says that he has too much money. He is single if you are asking. The headquarters for Red Bull is located nearby also, as is their museum. 

When they celebrated the 50th anniversary of the movie, he flew the only remaining member of the real Von Trap family from America, as that is where the family escaped to, as she was 94 years old. 

When the family escaped, the last person to shut the gates on the family Mansion was Maria, and the current owners who run it as a hotel wanted the gates to be opened to the public by the last family member who closed them. This was Maria. 

From there we travelled back to Salzburg to the Mirabelle gardens where many other scenes were shot. Remember the stairs and the song Doh Rea Me, and the pointing statues where they tried to replicate them, or the tunnel arbor they ran down? It was all here! 

The tour guide, Natasha, was hilarious and her honesty with how scenes were construed to something they weren’t upset a few diehards and three people left at the first stop.

Austria is the 16th richest country in the world, and the richest country in Europe per capita,  due to one person, Gottlieb Porsche, €673 billion, followed by Red Bull Owner, €110 billion, as well as the owner of the crystal manufacturers, Swarovski €67 billion and firearm manufacturers, Glock, €58 billion. 

Brain has been filled with do much information, it needs to be fed and rehydrated, so back on the bus to Myrtle and this is where we ran into our friendly priest again. He actually hopped off at our stop. He was on holidays from an Rnglish College. Has been coming here for 15 years. 

 More to follow