the hills are alive...

I know that Teny and Caroline are going to laugh when they read this, but my FAVORITE place that we visited during the week, was, hands down, SALZBURG. Yes, we went there for the sole purpose of going on the Sound of Music Tour. Which wasn't exactly all I hoped it to be (it was two weeks premature of the opening of "the season" so it was a little laid back and less exciting than expected) but I still LOVED LOVED LOVED Austria and we had a great two days there. I'm so glad we went. Mom, I felt like I could breathe there.

the view from our hotel window. apparently all the hotels in salzburg play the Sound of Music 

24/7 on repeat on channel 44. I'm a little disappointed we never turned the tv on!

you know how excited i get over blue sky...

old town salzburg

the river

YUM the HUGE pretzels

we found them at this darling open market

EDELWEISS

the oldest street in old town. look at all the cute iron signs!

what I wanted to wear on the tour the next day.

Caroline and me at dinner, where we each got a traditional Austrian dish: 

schnitzl (my new fave), sausage, and beef goulash. Yum!

DAY 2: THE TOUR

How could you not love a plastic cow with sound of music images painted all over it!?!

the von trapp family house. they actually filmed all of the scenes that take place in the interior of the house in a studio, but the studio was basically an exact copy of the interior of this house

just your casual back yard. this is the lake where they fall in from the row boat when they greet the baroness and the captain. the little girl who played Gretel didn't know how to swim and was apparently traumatized after shooting that scene because Julie Andrews was supposed to catch  her, but she fell on the other side of the boat and one of her siblings had to save her. Good thing she had 6 siblings to do so!

The gazebo! It was moved to this location because too many homeless people were sleeping in it in its previous home. It was much smaller than I imagined! When they were filming the scene with "16 going on 17," Charmian Carr, the actress playing Liesal ran through the glass and hurt her ankle (probably during the part that she runs on the perimeter bench). On the VHS version of the movie you can see the nude color bandage underneath her sock. On the DVD they have edited it out.

The trees that the children climb in their curtain outfits, while the baroness and captain drive by. They combined this shot with one of a lake so that in the movie it looks like the road is just beside the lake. "trick photography" like ned nederlander uses.

"i've even heard her singing in THE ABBEY"

Austria is so beautiful

so random - but Red Bull was created in Austria, and this was the first factory

the church where they got married

the steps from the end of "do-re-mi"

recognize this from the do-re-mi scene!?! the fountain!

our delicious picnic (all from the open market in old town) on the train to vienna. everyone around us was very jealous of our fruit, bread, and cheese feast!