Pix: Sound of Music hunt (or singing once more, by accident)
The movie is everywhere in Salzburg. It's not the merch so much. Past DVDs, finding a branded music box or any other item is a dozen times harder than finding anything Mozart. It's more how filmmakers ended up everywhere in the city, and you can end up everywhere as well.
(You didn't think the trip pictures were done, did you? Please. There are trick fountains, mountain slides, German rap, and more to come.)
To recap, you've seen the horse gates and ballroom inspiration (set). You've seen the do-re-mi fountain and cemetery inspiration (set).
On my last full day in the city, I decided to track down some Sound of Music spots I hadn't seen — the gazebo and the front of the palace. It had been tricky to figure out what was where. Our palace hosted half of the lake and back patio scenes. When they showed the lake or back walk, that was our palace. But when scenes cut the other way, toward a yellow palace, that was Hollywood. The gazebo scenes had become convoluted as well. Originally in our backyard, the traffic got to be nuts, so they picked up the whole gazebo and moved it to another palace.
Relative locals told me this other palace, Hellbrun, was a 20-25 minute walk. It turned out to be 45 minutes at Cooper-walk speed, about 5K.
Arriving, I was damn happy to find that gazebo where they said it was.
That was about all I took away from the gazebo. Placed next to a wall at the entrance to a park, the setting was pretty much the opposite of secluded. But it was easy for tourists to find. Somewhat disappointed, I was glad the palace was the setting of Sound of Music's courtyard.
Except, while the yellow color was right, the courtyard clearly was not.
The trick fountains out back were a terrific distraction (like I said, that photo gallery is coming), but you should see the photos I took trying to convince myself this was the place and I was seeing the angles wrong.
So, I headed up the path home.
I'd taken a different route earlier. The nun was heading for an abbey on the road (not the abbey). and the carriages and bikes were nice.
And then I came upon this yellow wall, which for once looked right.
Courtyard looked right too. So right. But I doubted. Took a photograph to confirm at home — it checked out, happily. The place was Frohnburg. If there a no-parking sign to take from a palace and stick elsewhere…
August 26th, 2009 at 2:32 PM
[...] Perfect for walking 5K home. Nothing makes you forget about distance like a drenching, and the bishop that built Hellbrunn Palace must have been all about that. This tour was trick fountains, just trick fountains. [...]