In Salzburg, there are three kinds of people; those who love the movie, those who abhor it and those who make a living from it. This is surprising considering Austrians were unaware of The Sound of Music before America and Hollywood thrust it down their throats.
The women on The Sound of Music Tour bus are excited, the men slightly embarrassed. A couple of American children keep fidgeting, clueless as to what the fuss is all about. Then the stories begin. The first tale concerns a lady from Australia who took this tour and ended up in tears while the sound track played towards the end. She was accustomed to watching the movie at home every Saturday (in the company of a bottle of good wine) and was overcome by emotion when finally seeing where the film was shot.
The 1959 play and then the film, released in 1965, took a lot of liberties with the real story of Maria von Trapp and her family. When the genuine von Trapps escaped Nazi rule in Salzburg, they hiked to the nearest train station and went to Italy. The last scenes of the film show them escaping into Switzerland, a five-hour drive away; these were shot near Berchtesgaden, Germany, close to Hitler's 'Eagles Nest', so it is unlikely the von Trapps would have headed there.
All this is told to us by Vincent, our guide, who loves his mic and keeps us entertained throughout the morning.
Edelweiss, he tells us, is not a popular Austrian folk song (as the film would have you believe). It was composed by Rodgers and Hammerstein, the last project the duo worked on before the latter died.
Edelweiss is the brand name of a popular Austrian beer today, but young men were once required to climb the Alps to pick for their love an edelweiss flower.
As these interesting titbits flow, we travel through serious Sound of Music country, beginning with the Leopoldskron Lake, with the palace to the side, where scenes of the movie showing the terrace of the captain's home were shot.