The Hills Were Alive

On the last day of our holiday in Germany, we set out early. We packed our bags and left them at the reception of our hotel. Then we had a quick breakfast and then caught the train to Salzburg. Our plan ( actually, my plan) was to do the Sound of Music Tour, but we read such bad reviews that we decided to save our money and visit the sites by ourselves. I have seen the movie so many times and I just can't work out if I love it or really really really hate it. I think I hate it. I can't wait to watch it again.

Our first stop was the Mirabell Gardens where they sang "Do Re Mi" in the film.


Kev is obviously enjoying himself already



Mi - a name I call myself

Then we walked around the city for a bit. It is really beautiful, but very touristy. That's what we were hoping for! Then we started to make our way up the hill to see Nonnberg Abbey, where Maria was a novice. For those of you who have seen the movie, this is where the children come asking for Maria when she runs away.



The entrance of Nonnberg Abbey

The gardens of Nonnberg Abbey

After this we had a choice - walk up a really steep hill to visit the fortress, or take it easy and walk back down the other side of the hill. We decided not to exert too much energy, so we went down the other side of the hill towards the countryside.

Now, if we had of done the official tour, we know that they would have been singing all those tacky songs all day, so we decided to do the same. Poor Kev knew the melodies but not the words, but he did his best.... "Moonbeams on roses and blue coloured chickens...." Actually, it started getting a little ridiculous but we were having fun.

Nice, huh

Our destination was the place where they filmed the back of the Von Trapps home. It was only about a 20 minute walk from the Abbey. As we approached the lake, Kev exclaimed, "Awe....that's where Darcy dived into the lake!" I told him that he was getting his chick flicks confused.

This is where the kids fell out of the boat

We went for a leisurely stroll then started to walk back to the city. Once again, the scenery was lovely.

Fortress in the background

Not sure if Kev was taking the tour very seriously

Back in the city there were many sites to see. Including the cemetery of St Peter's Abbey where they filmed the scene where the fam were hiding from the Nazis behind the tombs, and Rolfe betrays them. Nasty boy!

St Peter's Abbey - the hiding place

St Peter's Abbey Cemetery

This was the last location on our list of places to see, so we went back to the train station. We caught the train back to Prien, collected our bags from the hotel, then got the next train to Munich. We had organised to stay in the parish house of the Emmanuel Community. We got in quite late so we didn't have the chance to look around. With all our train and plane connections, we have been to Munich four times within the last three weeks and never actually seen the city. (tick????)

We were pretty tired after all that walking so we had an early night. The next day we returned home (to Rome, not our real home - that's on the other side of the world)