Austria, 25.July.2024, Thursday

Salzburg

I started the day by walking over to the Residenz Platz to try to hear the bells caroling – there are 32 bells in the tower that are played by a barrel that turns and strikes the bells according to the tune chosen. But this ringing happened as 7am and I really love hearing bells. At first all the other church bells were ringing and this one didn’t play, then it started a few minutes after all others had quieted and it was a great way to start the day. 

Ok, today was a completely and totally wonderful day. I had moments of pure happy on the tour for Sound of Music, like I do at times on a Camino. It was the best having Tricia, Holly and Flynn with us. Flynn was a trooper because this wasn’t a flashback for her, even though she’s seen the movie. But for the rest of us, it was just great. 

Very cool surprise – our guide was a relative of the Von Trapps on the Captain’s first wife’s side. He was really passionate about his subject and had talked to a lot of the members of his family getting details and learning. He said when he went to Vermont and met Maria, he was startled because she was older and stout and didn’t look like Julie Andrews – but she was still warm and wonderful and told great stories. 

Peter gave us a really interesting synthesis between Maria’s autobiography and stories cousins and family told, the play with Mary Martin, and the filming of the movie with Julie Andrews, Robert Wise (director) and Maria Von Trapp. Robert and Julie wanted Maria with them the whole time to tell them how it really was and what it was like for her. 

So as we toured, Peter talked about Maria’s life, how Robert integrated it into the movie, and how the Von Trapp family felt about it all. 

I’m really hoping that someday I can come back and do it with Kaziah – a particular wish of hers – so I won’t put all I learned here, plus it would be a lot. But just know that when we watch the movie – it really did honor Maria’s life and wishes. So cool. And also, Christopher Plummer really was just as snotty and rude as we imagined after reading his complaints about doing the role. But they handled him! Maria was very strong.

It took us four hours in and out of Salzburg, in and out of the car, with a total of 10 min for a break, but it flew by. Salzburg and the country around it are beautiful. Since Peter drove us out to the church of the wedding scene and the meadows and mountains of some of the movie scenes, we got to see more than just the city. So green and beautiful. We had a perfect weather day to explore.

I’ll tell just the beginning story of Maria and how that melded with the movie. (Per Peter since it differs from Wikipedia.) We drove first to see the Benedictine convent (seen from below since you can’t visit, nuns, though far fewer, are still in residence) where Maria was. This was Nonnberg Abbey, the convent started in the 800’s by Prince Rupert with his sister as the abbess. Maria was born on the train as her parents left Tyrol on their way to Vienna. Since the authorities couldn’t give “train” as her birthplace, they put Vienna since they were on their way there. But Maria always considered the mountains her home and loved hiking. 

Maria’s parents died when she was young and she was fostered by relatives, but it was abusive and she left when she was 15 to live with a friend. She was very lonely, wishing she had family, and was trying to figure out what to do with herself. She went to a concert at the church. However, the concert was canceled and instead a Jesuit priest spoke. He talked being in the family of God and caring for others, what it meant to be in community with others of like mind and how they supported each other. Maria decided she wanted to be a nun so she would have a family and to go to Salzburg since it’s near the mountains. She rang the bell (the same in the movie) and told them she wanted to be a postulate. The two nuns she spoke with recognized that she didn’t have a calling, but needed a family. They then appealed to the Mother Superior who said they were meant to be her family and she could teach music at the parochial school.

Here’s Nonnberg Abbey. The bell isn’t there any more that the kids rang because tourists rang is so constantly, that they had to remove it. The four windows on the upper left are in the Mother Superior’s room and the scene with the “Climb Every Mountatin” happened in this room (via movie set). The movie scene was very close to the real scene when she told Maria she should leave the convent because “when a door closes, a window will open.” 

She did teach music, but she also really did cause chaos, since she ran, sang, whistled and generally behaved with more enthusiasm than decorum. Finally, the Mother Superior secretly pulled all the nuns together and told them had to pray and pray hard that a husband could be found for Maria. They prayed with their rosaries for 9 days straight and at the end, someone came to the convent asking for a governess for the youngest daughter of a Captain Von Trapp whose wife had died of a heart ailment and whose younger daughter had the same condition. Hallelujah!

So – there’s the start of Maria and the Von Trapps, many many more stories. Peter would point out something and say, remember when they…..in the movie. And Holly, Tricia and I would all say yes! So that’s where they filmed it and this is how it related to what really did happen in Maria’s life, which was often very close. 

Uncle Max’s real house and where the real and movie scene happened with the kids in the boat and the balcony where the Captain saw the boat turn over. The real story was a little different, but core the same. 

Max was an amazing person, strong, determined, kind. Started the Salzburg music festival in an effort to unite countries and people. He told people if they wanted to perform, they had to spend at least one summer living here in company with all others so that they could learn all were performers and people despite different skin, traditions, heritages. This was all part of his strategy go bring people together. I guess it really worked until Hitler came along. 

He had to flee (partly Jewish) with his American wife to the US and died of a broken heart shortly after getting to the US. After the war, the American Commandant wanted to give the house back to his wife. She said she couldn’t afford it, the upkeep, at all. A few soldiers under the Commandant were there who were Harvard students, and they loved what Max had tried to do. They said they could help. If she’d take the estate back, they had wealthy family and connections from Harvard and would help set up a foundation to bring in speakers from around the world, to continue Max’s wish to open doors between people. This became the Salzburg Global Seminar. (The Wikipedia link tells it a little differently). 

It’s the mansion on the right, blow it up and you can see the balcony!

Grounds near this mansion, all of this is really close to Salzburg, the bike path would be amazing. Saw this on our way to the row of trees where Maria got off the bus. 

Then on to the Gazebo where Leisl sang and danced. It used to be to the left of Max’s mansion, but there were so many visitors and they were so loud, that they disturbed the lectures going on in the Salzberg Global Seminar and it had to be moved. It’s now at the Schloss Helbrunn which is also an incredible place, though we didn’t see much. 

I liked this wikipedia entry for the actress who played Leisl.

Moment for Flynn:

Outside the Schloss I saw these and they stopped me in my tracks. These are two of the “stumbling stones” that mark name, date, why, end for a victim of the regime. 

He lived here:

These were a stark reminder of what was happening at the time and later of Sound of Music.  This is the train station that the family used – right near their house (actual house, not Max’s) to escape using their diplomatic performance visas.

Driving to Maria’s movie wedding church, we pulled over to see the Red Bull campus. I had no idea, but it’s owned 51% by the Thai whose herbs were the genesis of the drink and 49% by an Austrian group. The whole facility was built on Feng Shui principles to blend with the water and mountains. It’s under repair, but you can still see how incredible the feeling is. Gorgeous. And – turns out that the Austrian family have been huge sports promoters, but evidently also do a lot to support the local area and economy, especially during COVID. 

Back to Maria 🙂

The meadow behind and to the right is where they learned do-re-mi…

Here’s the church from the movie, Robert Wise asked Maria what her dream wedding would have been, she said in this church with all the locals celebrating at a party afterwards. So that’s what they did!

And here’s a bit of how the music might have really sounded since we were lucky enough to hear musicians practicing. 

And, finally, back in Salzburg, Mirabell Gardens where a lot of scenes from the do-re-mi song were filmed with the kids playing. 

And I didn’t get a picture of the stairs because there were so many tourists walking them and getting photos – but the stairs where they hopped up and down singing are behind me as I look at this trellis. And – that’s the end. It was magical.

This is just a bit of why the Mirabell Gardens are so named (the palace is on the right), the stairs are at the far end:

Back to Salzburg focus – during the summer there’s an incredible music festival, this year from 7/19-8/31 and we happened to be here for it. If I were to come back, I would plan way ahead for tickets and scheduling. Since it’s Mozart’s birthplace, they take that to heart and all kinds of music, opera, and types of performances are available in all types of buildings. Some free, some inexpensive, probably some very expensive. 

Tricia and I had decided we really wanted to see some concerts before we’d left for the tour and I’d arranged two seats at the Residenz for a piano concert and then 2 seats at Mirabell Schloss (palace for whole the gardens were made) for an evening chamber concert. Both so reasonable! Holly decided she and Flynn would rather try to find some gifts and just wander the city. However, when we got back, Tricia and I were too tired and hungry to go straight to the piano concert, gave up our tickets and the four of us went to lunch. 

After that, Tricia and I took the funicular up to see the fort. It was SO huge, I just couldn’t imagine what it was like up there. We had limited time which was perfect since we were pretty toured out. It was clearly a city within a fortress, different eras of buildings, and always used a pulley system of getting materials up there, animals pulling in the old days. Ach, probably horrible. 

We didn’t have time to go into any of the museums (maybe 3?), nor eat, 2 restaurants, 3 cafe/bistros, tower, prison, etc. In fact, I just walked around getting a video which I’ll share if it’s any good so Tricia could get a sense of it. She was sparing her foot since we were going to have to walk to and fro the evening concert. 

Then we went to the Mirabell Schloss concert and it was fantastic. A really good chamber group of 5 and a wonderful guest pianist who made the notes seem like water, just gorgeous. Haydn, Mozart, Hayden, Mozart. The acoustics in the hall were wonderful, and the time flew by. 

Then walked home at night. It was a perfect day.