Our ship docked in Linz this morning, but many of us hopped on a coach this morning heading on a full-day “Sound of Music” tour. Our first stop on this full day was the small town of Mondsee to visit the The Basilica of St. Michael, the church where the wedding scene of Maria and Baron von Trapp was filmed. Also in Mondsee is the avenue of trees featured in the scene where the Baron von Trapp is driving back home with the Baroness Schraeder and they see children playing in trees, children he didn’t realize were his own until returning to the house. 

Hoping back on the bus, we made our way to Saltzburg. As we drove into the city Untersberg mountain came into view, the filming location for the iconic opening scenes of Maria singing “The Hills Are Alive” as well as the final scene where the Trapp family is fleeing Nazi-controlled Austria to Switzerland. In actuality, these mountains mark the border between Austria and Germany, so definitely not the way the real von Trapp family, but instead fled by train 220 km to Switzerland. 

We then ventured through all of town catching many scene locations from the film, including the beautiful botanical gardens at Mirabell Palace, where many scenes from “Do-Re-Mi” were filmed. I think my favorite place was visiting St. Peter’s Cemetery. While not an actual movie set, it was the inspiration for the Abbey courtyard cemetery where the von Trapp hid while from the Nazis. It was the most peaceful, cared for cemetery I’ve ever seen, such a serene place. 

We headed back to the coach mid-afternoon and rode for about 2 hour ride to meet the ship back in Linz. Before boarding the ship we stopped in the center of Linz and enjoyed the a slice of the famous Linzer torte. A lovely dinner and evening concert on board rounded out our evening as we set sail to tomorrow destination…Passau, Germany!