Youngs Around the World

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Who doesn’t love The Sound of Music? I was captivated by this movie as a child and have fond memories of my mom singing the songs when the movie was shown on television each year. She has the prettiest singing voice and when I hear the songs in my mind, it is her voice that is singing them. My poor deprived husband has never actually seen the movie, a fact that endeared him to me even more when he agreed to embark on the guided The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, where the movie was filmed, and even feigned excitement.

Salzburg, a city dating back to the 8th century, is most famous for two things: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and The Sound of Music. The city is surrounded by forest-covered mountains and straddles a gurgling green river with the historic old town on one side and the new town on the other. A medieval fort stands atop a cliff edging the city, dominating the skyline. The surrounding mountains are dotted with sparkling lakes and picturesque villages.

Rain was in the forecast during our brief two-night stay in Salzburg and, while we generally avoid tour groups, this was a perfect example of an exceptional time when joining the herd was advantageous: we had little time, no guide book, and wanted to visit several places that were spread out around the city and in the surrounding countryside.

Our guide was a flamboyant and witty fellow who kept us laughing as we rolled from one Sound of Music film location to the next. From the Von Trapp family home and the glass gazebo to the charming Mirabell Gardens with the Do Re Mi steps, the hills were alive with the Sound of Music. Our guide possessed encyclopedic knowledge of Sound of Music trivia and filled the intervals between sights with stories of the real Von Trapp family and the many liberties that were taken by 20th Century Fox to turn the real life story into one of the most famous musicals of all time. I didn’t actually know that there was a real Von Trapp family until this tour – a family that escaped the Nazis in the end by training to Italy (rather than hiking over the mountains), making a living through musical performances, and eventually settling in Stowe, Vermont. We sang the songs and marveled at the beauty of Salzburg.

The highlight of our tour was a stop in the charming little town of Mondsee. We visited St. Michael’s Church, where the Von Trapp wedding scene was filmed, and then sat down at a cozy café for some “crisp apple strudel” with hot vanilla sauce. We couldn’t find any schnitzel with noodles. The tour was cheesy but delightful and that first afternoon in Salzburg turned out to be the last good weather before the rains came. We walked around town a bit on our own – admiring the architecture, stopping by Mozart’s house, and browsing the pretty Christmas shops in the old town – but the cold and rain motivated us to spend most of the next day hibernating in our room.

Our stay in Salzburg was short but lovely and educational. I can’t wait to get home to Iowa to sit down with my family and watch The Sound of Music…and hear my mom sing the songs.

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