Day 7 – Memorial Day Sightseeing

Time truly flies by when you’re traveling the world and having fun! Today was our seventh day in Europe and though we didn’t have a concert planned, we did honor our U.S. holiday of Memorial Day with a little impromptu singing.

Instead of spending our time preparing for another concert, we used this break from singing to really appreciate the beauty of our surroundings, and we were blown away. Sometimes you have to take a moment and just appreciate things.

Throughout our time in the city we’ve encountered a number of connections to the “Sound of Music” movie, but now it was time to commit to doing the full tour, which as you can imagine, featured sites made famous in the movie. Included among the places we visited were Leopoldskron Castle (residence of Van Trapp family), site of the lake scene behind the residence where characters fell in the water, and the gazebo where the song “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” was sung. Visiting these places was a reminder of why the movie was so popular in its day. The majestic Austrian landscape was its own character in the movie and it did not disappoint in person.

Surprisingly, most Austrians have never seen the movie, it’s mostly an American phenomenon. However, the movie has been injecting billions of dollars into the local economy since the movie first debuted more than 50 years. As a result of the movie’s influence, sadly, more people associate Salzburg with the “Sound of Music” than do those who recognize it as the birthplace of Mozart.

Our next tour stop was the Salzburg Lake District located 45 minutes outside of the city by car and a drive through the alps. The Salzburg Lake District’s view was breathtakingly beautiful! Once we arrived we immediately explored the towns of Fuschl, St. Gilgen, Bad Ischl, and Hallstatt to take as many pictures as possible.

Today was indeed one for the books and will be fondly remembered every time that the “Sounds of Music” comes up.