MUSICAL TOUR OF SALZBURG

 

When we thought of any classic movies of all times, rather more of our childhood, one of the names that came into our mind was the film “Sound of Music”. It had been a musical movie especially for children and to date it was as popular as it had been fifty years before.

The mesmerizing sceneries which were added attraction of the film drew the attention of many people like us. Everybody wanted to place themselves in that location even in the dream; the undulating landscape with lush green meadows, a big lake with a castle on the bank, snow-capped mountains, clear blue skies with spots of white cloud and children singing songs with their governess.

It had been a dream destination for anybody who had seen the film. After a gap of almost fifty years, I could fulfill the dream of being present in the shooting location with my family and friends.

The majority of its shooting took place in a small hamlet of Salzburg, with a distance of around 300 km from Vienna, capital of Austria. Salzburg had another importance of being the birthplace of Mozart, the musical maestro of all times. The place had also easy access from Munich to Germany by train and road.

Salzburg was the fourth the largest city of Austria and the capital of the State of Salzburg with a population of around 1.50 lakh. There were a number of churches, a fortress, and the dwelling house of Mozart of which we had a panoramic view. Our main attraction was to visit the locations of the shooting of “Sound of Music”. It was not only our demand but also the demand for a majority of tourists. That’s why a separate tour operating system “Sound of Music Panorama Tour” by name was prevalent. It was a half-day tour covering major locations, especially, where the popular songs were filmed.

Having disembarked from the train from Vienna, we booked the ticket for “Sound of Music Panorama Tour” paying 42 Euros for each person. We were advised to move to another end of the railway station where the vehicles for the tour were parked. As soon as we crossed the railway track through an underpass and reached the parking arena, we found a scarlet red vehicle with a seating capacity of seven persons waiting for us. Incidentally, our guide cum driver Ms. Michelle welcomed us and we were told to wait for other passengers and the car would leave exactly at 09.30 hours in the morning.

When we got into the car, we found one of our members missing. We frantically started searching for him within the station premises and in the surroundings. Our objective was to search mainly in the mobile phone repairing outlets as he was complaining about some problems with his mobile phone. We started shouting even breaking the decency, to reach him but failed. Our guide was also anxious as she was tied to the time schedule so we had to move without him.  

It was totally a guided tour and as soon as we started, the famous song “Doe a deer, a female deer” started playing in the recorder of the vehicle. Having crossed the downtown area and keeping the birthplace of Mozart on our right, we proceeded towards the hamlet where the lake and Leopoldskron Castle was located. The castle was the residential building of Captain Baron and his children. We were brought on the opposite side of the lake and could see the castle along with a marble statue in the garden. Since the entry in the castle was restricted, we had to satisfy ourselves by watching it from a distance. The lake, where the boat carrying children along with Maria, the governess overturned, flocks of sparkling white geese were swimming in the water. Still, the castle, lake, garden, flocks of geese were there but could only recollect Maria and the children.

Then, we moved towards the Werfen Picnic Meadow where the famous song “Do Re Me” was shot with the children and Maria sitting on lush green meadows with velvet-like grass, snowcapped mountains, and chirping of birds. We walked through the meadow and imagined ourselves to be one of those children of the Captain learning music from Maria….”Do Re Me”. We spent around half an hour in the meadows enjoying the cool breeze and mesmerizing beauty of the Austrian Alps in the backdrop, thinking if our childhood would have been spent in such a heavenly place. Call from our guide reminded us of time restriction and we had to move to the next location.

Though we were enjoying the locations, we kept on thinking about our missing member in the back of our minds. His wife was also irritated and anxious about the negligence of her husband. But we were totally helpless and had to wait for our destiny.

Those who could remember the famous heartthrob song “You are sixteen, going on seventeen”, could not forget the love of teenagers, their dance, the rain and the enclosure of the park. The shooting took place in Heilbrun Castle and the Glass Pavilion. It was a recapitulation of our teenage when we moved into the park of the castle and the pavilion and our guide was playing the song. It was really a terrible feeling. The scenery of dancing couple in rain, the song, and the entire environment was just flowing in our mind like a flashback.

Our next destination was the famous Mondsee Wedding Church where Captain and Maria got married in the last session of the film. The church was located in the heart of downtown with the huge open arena in front. We had ample time to visit inside the church but our movement was limited as marriage was in progress. We loitered outside the church enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze.

Since time was limited, we had to move to our next and the last destination, Mirabell Garden where the children used to come to play with their governess Maria. The scenes of children climbing up and down the staircase, swinging around the fountain, running through the flower garden, and encircling the statues were shot here. We saw the children of the present world enjoying the beauty of Mirabell Garden in their colorful clothes, with the same jovial mood and satisfaction, and tried to recollect what happened about half a century ago. Those children might have become adults and some of them might have grandchildren of that age. We could visualize those days and compare them with the children of present cherishing the memories.

Since Mirabell Garden was very near to Salzburg Railway Station, we preferred to walk back to our destination with the anxiety of searching our missing member.

Having reached the station, we found our missing member enjoying a large cup of cappuccino with a new mobile phone in his hand. It was learnt that he tried to get the mobile phone repaired but ultimately failed to do so. As an ultimate choice, he purchased a new mobile phone. After purchase when he came down from the first floor of the shopping mall, he learnt from the booking counter, that the vehicles for panorama tour had already left. As a result, he had to pay the penalty for missing such a beautiful tour at the cost of a mobile phone.

We returned to the platform of the station, with full satisfaction for visiting such a wonderful location in the lap of the Austrian Alps and carried memories of the great film. Soon we boarded for our return journey to Vienna with the desire to come back to the heavenly place again.

  Film Courtesy YouTube