We got up bright and early, at 7 am, to get ready for our Official Sound of Music Tour. We bought muffins in the hotel/hostel lobby and quickly ate them before making the trek to our meeting point. Our mobile tickets said we needed to be there at 9:15, so we had plenty of time.
As we got close to the meeting point, at around 9 am, we saw an Official Sound of Music Tour bus full of people drive by. It said "Tour 1A," which is what our tickets said....so we panicked! We ran after it but then realized it was heading toward the meeting place, so we tried to beat it there. Once we got there, though, we saw a bunch of people in line by the bus. Turns out, there are multiple buses that do the tour, and all of them say "Tour 1A." Thank God!
We talked to some of the other people waiting in line (I drew some attention in my dirndl) and found out that there were people there from Dallas and Austin! It was a Texan takeover. Our tour guide, Ana, also in a dirndl, ran up and gave me a hug as soon as she saw me because she loved that I dressed for the occasion. She was rocking that European BO, but she was very sweet all the same. And talented! She sang for us quite a bit and is apparently the only tour guide who can sing.
Remember how I said we had mobile tickets? Well, on the tickets, it said that was acceptable. But as we were about to board the bus, we found out that we needed to run back across the street to the Panorama Tours booth to get physical tickets. It didn't take long, and we still got to sit together, but it was still kind of stressful.
Once the tour started, though, everything was fine. For four hours, we saw important sights for the movie and the real story of the von Trapp family in and around Salzburg. It rained on us a little bit, but that's pretty typical of that area. All in all, it was amazing, and everything we'd hoped for.
The lake Maria and the children fell into, as well as one of the houses used for exterior shots
The trees that the "local urchins" played in, as well as the pathway Maria takes to get to the house
The exterior of the "16 Going on 17" and "Something Good" Gazebo
I think this was just a pretty viewpoint!
The Basilica in Montsee, used for the filming of the wedding
Inside the church (which was so pretty and pink), we got to hear a young tour group sing a hymn while in a semi-circle formation on the steps to the altar. It was strange, but cool all the same. They were good!
Also in Montsee, we got to try some apple strudel. It was pretty good, but we had to rush to eat it to get back to the bus.
Me with Ana and our cute bus
"Do Re Mi" gardens
After the magnificent tour was over, we had lunch at this organic burger place that was actually super delicious. They had multiple kinds of veggie burgers, so that's what attracted me to it!
We then spent some time back at the hostel just resting. We changed out of our cuter clothes into more comfortable outfits, and eventually headed back out to the city center.
Our plan was to go inside Mozart's birth house, but first, we had to take a picture on the Mozart bridge (also seen in "Do Re Mi").
The Mozart house was pretty neat, but very hot and crowded. We were shocked at how many little kids were in there. They must've been bored out of their minds! The best part of the visit was that I got to buy a little Mozart rubber ducky to add to my collection, as well as some of the Mozart chocolate balls (that are extremely delicious, I must say).
It was Italian again for dinner. There's so much Italian influence in Austria, though, that it's kinda hard to avoid. This place was cool because it had a salad bar. It wasn't all-you-can-eat, of course, but it was nice to be able to make our own salads nonetheless.
If you know us, you might be able to guess that we spent our evening finishing watching Hannah Montana: The Movie. Such a classic! We were pretty tired, though. We earned it.
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