As most of you know, Salzburg is the home of the Von Trapp family upon which The Sound of Music is based. Though the interiors of the movie were shot on a soundstage in Hollywood, all of the exteriors were filmed in Austria in and around Salzburg. Intent on visiting some of the filming locations, we spent our first night in Salzburg watching The Sound of Music. It holds up pretty well after all these years, it premiered 55 years ago! And Rolf, UGH! I still hate him!!
Of all the cities we have on our planned itinerary, visiting Salzburg was high on my list. I first came here in 1970 with my family and even then the movie was big business. My mom and sister, Judy and I were so excited that we would be visiting the villa where Captain Von Trapp and his seven children lived. My dad stood in line to get the tickets and off we went.
Only, we went to the wrong place. Turns out my Dad got the wrong tickets and instead of seeing the beautiful lakefront villa, we went to what seemed to us to be a random palace where we sat at a stone table and got squirted with water! Hellbrunn Palace is known for its trick water features and gardens but, at the time, we didn’t know about it. We girls were kind of pissed off, but we also thought it was funny. My dad was in no mood to be harangued by us and for whatever reason there were no do-overs, so we never did see that lakefront villa.
There are a few scenes from the movie that were filmed at Hellbrunn, mostly the outdoor garden scenes, like when the Captain sings a love song to Maria. Also, the gazebo where Rolf and Leisl sing “I Am Sixteen Going On Seventeen” is located in the palace gardens, but it wasn’t moved there until the 1990s. These days it’s locked up tight because too many tourists tried to recreate the scene where Liesl jumps from bench to bench and ended up taking a header through the glass walls.
It isn’t hard to find the shooting locations around Salzburg because it’s a fairly small city. Most were either filmed in the historic Old Town or at nearby palaces and gardens. Today, that waterfront villa is a hotel and I still haven’t seen it! Anyway, here are a few “then and now” photos of locations that we found while visiting Salzburg.
Fun, huh? Our stellplatz was located about 5 kms out of the center of town, but there was a fabulous bike path that followed a creek and then took us right along the Salzach river which runs through Salzburg. Once along the river, every few meters there was a bike rack, and at popular intersections there were many of them, often with hundreds of bikes parked up. We would find a space then take off on foot to explore. Everything is fairly centrally located.
Historic Salzburg is a UNESCO Heritage Site and is chock-a-block with things to see. Fortress Hohensalzburg sits high above the city and can be seen from just about everywhere, but to get to it we walked through Old Town and took the funicular. This is the first enclosed public transportation we took and not everyone was masked up. But there weren’t a lot of people and no one crowded into a car if there were already a few in it. Plus, it doesn’t take long at all to get to the top.
Once at the top we headed straight for the outdoor cafe that overlooks the city and ordered coffee and a slice of the most famous cake in all of Austria, the Sacher-torte, served with unsweetened whipped cream, which in my opinion is the best way to serve whipped cream. Anyone else? Just me?
A Sacher-torte is two layers of chocolate sponge cake with apricot jam in between, then topped with a chocolate glaze. I’d rate this one about a 6.5 out of 10 stars, mostly because I loved the ganache topping. It was good, but I’ve had better chocolate cake. Lisbon chocolate cake springs immediately to mind, which was a solid 8. We also tried Black Forest Cake in Germany and I am not a fan. This is owing to the fact that I don’t care for alcohol in desserts. At the bakery we purchased two slices of the Black Forest cake and ate one as soon as we got home. The taste of alcohol on the cherries was overpowering. The next day we ate the second slice and the alcohol had mellowed quite a bit, but still, not my fave. I like a fudgy cake with mousse and ganache, like this one at King Arthur Flour. Anyway, enough about chocolate cake.
Oh, just one more thing about chocolate. I forgot we also tried the famous Mozartkugel, named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who was born and lived in Salzburg. The Mozartkugel is a small, round dark chocolate ball with pistachio marzipan in the middle. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, but I’m glad to only have the one because those little suckers are expensive! And truth be told, I can take or leave marzipan. We did take a photo of the inside of it, but it’s not very appetizing to look at. 🙂
Aside from all the sweets, Salzburg is also known for its salt. Salzburg literally translates to “Salt Fortress” and you can buy it on every street corner and in every souvenir shop. About an hour out of Salzburg, in a little town called Hallstatt, you can take a tour of a Bavarian salt mine. We didn’t do this tour on our trip, to be honest, I’m not even sure they are running, but we did do it back on the family trip. At the mine you have to put on white coveralls and with others in your group, form a human train and hang on to each other as you straddle a very slick wooden slide and whoosh down into the mine. It was loads of fun and perhaps earned my dad some forgiveness following the water squirting fiasco.
Anyway, I could probably regale you with more food and chocolate stories, but I know you’re here for the photos, so here are some of the highlights of our time in Salzburg:
If I could only visit one city in all of Austria, it would be Salzburg. Fortunately for me, I get to visit more than one!
UP NEXT: Tripping in Vienna!
P.S. I want to say thank you to those who signed up to receive notifications when we publish a new post. I was a little verklempt that my request was met with such a positive result with more than 20 of you signing up! I appreciate you one and all, and let me tell you that your efforts cause a whole lot of clapping and eye rolling! My goal was to reach 100 by the end of the year, but we sailed by that goal easily and there was extra squealing going on when we reached 100! So thank you so much! And if you haven’t signed up yet, why not? 🙂
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Loved the ‘then’ and ‘now’ shots of Salzburg. I’d love to visit and maybe one day we will. Verklempt! Such a great word. Can’t wait to see the rest of your Austria posts.
Definitely one of my favorite European cities! The food and sights are so wonderful, you should put this on your list!
Wow!! Those now n then pictures were wonderful!! It does all look SO old!! And green!
Didn’t you love that movie? I know all the words to the songs! I used to love when it came on TV, only once or twice a year! It was so fun to find all these places! Good to hear from you, Dolores!
You’re in the area where we HOPE to be in May 2021 for our river boat cruise. My hubby is so excited that you’re going to Vienna, (that’s the reason for the cruise). What a pleasure your posts have been to us.
Thank you for your kind words, Dee. I hope things settle down by then and that you get to go on your river cruise. As a little preview, Vienna was gorgeous. The blog will be, eh, slightly different. At least in the beginning. 🙂
Love your posts! Been following for about four years, but just recently signed up for notifications. Anyway living vicariously through you because I would love to explore Europe especially Ireland and England, Italy, Sweden, Austria, and Germany. So going to add any of these to your travels? 😉😀. Pictures are fabulous! My brother is a photographer also and I have turned him onto Steven’s website. Keep the posts coming!
P.S. We are RV DREAMERS also, but only part-timers.
I sure am glad you spoke up to let us know you are following along! And thanks for signing up, I’m sure I squealed and Steven rolled his eyes in your honor! We spent last summer in Ireland, so if you missed those posts, please go back to read them, we had a wonderful time exploring the Wild Atlantic Way! Austria and Germany are current locations, but Sweden and Italy will be next year. England is iffy, but it could happen! Thanks for taking time to comment!
Every post seems to get better and better. I’ve visited many of these places, but they didn’t look as interesting as you guys found them. Props to you!
Thanks, Fred. We just keep going to these amazing places and hanging out until we find all the good stuff! But just a heads up, the Vienna post will be slightly different than usual. 🙂
Russell and I truly enjoy traveling with y’all, as you make it seem. We’d love to make it to Salzburg some day. Anton Bruckner is one of Russell’s favorites and then there are all the other Austrian composers! We are both big SOM fans as well. In the meantime, thanks for being so considerate and making us feel included on your travels!
Thank you, Kat. I am so glad you and Russell are along on this trip with us. I will say that Salzburg should be at the top of your list. I hope one day you guys will be able to travel here. Love you lots!
I love it here, too, Mr. T. Thanks for your kind words, and yep, it’s hard to take a bad photo in such a beautiful place! Hope you are safe and doing well.
When my son was in the Air Force in Germany in the early 80s, I visited for 2 weeks at Christmas time. When we went to Salzburg we WALKED up to Hohensalzburg Fortress in snow and ice. Whew! Going toward the “ramp” we walked through a cemetery that had headstones made of iron(?) with gold trim. Beautiful in the sun with snow all around.
We also went to the marionette theatre to see a production of Nutcracker Suite and then toured Mozart’s birthplace. Salzburg was one of my favorite places in Austria.
By the way, many of my friends and family are reading your blog now…..it’s the best!!!!!!
Oh, how fun to visit Salzburg in the winter! I’ve been to Innsbruck, not too far away, and it is beautiful, of course. What’s not to love about the Austrian Alps in winter, right? Steven returned to the fortress by himself and he walked up. We both walked down after taking the tram, we didn’t want to push our luck. And that cemetery you visited is the same as the one in the photos above! It is so beautiful. And there is a section of graves that are behind gates, and that is the location where the Von Trapp family hid when the Nazis were searching for them. Except it was filmed on a soundstage in Hollywood. Thank you for passing on our little blog to your family and friends, we appreciate your support!
Well, because with so few bloggers posting nowdays going through the list of blogs i follow is like a treasure hunt! And ever so sweet to find a treasure! Cool front came through central Texas this afternoon, rain, lightning, thunder temp is all the way down to 77!!! Keep on Keeping on!
Thank you, Jim, kind words, indeed. I guess not many folks are traveling in the U.S. right now, eh? Or at least, not as many as usual. It’s busy enough over here, but most are still somewhat close to home. Right now we are the only “French” van, most are Belgium, Dutch, German and Austrian. Our temps are warm today, 84 degrees, but we’re due for a cooling spell Thanks for taking time to comment!
So many fabulous things to see and CAKE.
Are you a chocolate cake person, Deb? If you are and you need to make one, try that King Arthur recipe and let me know how you like it. I am dying to try it, but my little oven might not handle it well. I may try in the winter anyway, when it cools off and we settle down for a few weeks!
Another winning post!!! Thanks!
LOL, you must be binge-reading today! 🙂 Always glad to know you are still with us, thank you!
Your blog is fabulous. We are reliving our travels in the 1980’s by bike (tandem) especially Along the Moselle and the Rhine. I found you at RV Village. We full timed for about 20 years, but now have a house In AZ and a smaller Class C for summer travels except 2020 of course.
Thank you for you kind words, Peter. Wow, 20 years of fulltiming, that’s amazing! I think we aspire to be on the road that long, but who knows. I think biking the European rivers would be amazing! Stay safe and when things calm down you can get back out on the road!
Lovely, lovely as always. Question…..what do you do for health insurance? Are you covered for covid?
Hi Melissa! We have insurance with Cigna International and yes, we are covered for COVID should either of us get sick. We know this, because Cigna sent us an email telling us we were covered. 🙂
Loved loved the now and then pictures. Thanks so much for sharing. PS I don’t like alcohol in my deserts either!
Right? You know I love my wine and a good cocktail, but in dessert? Yucky!