Today was our last day in Austria. The last full day of being in this country for a very long time. And it being such a gorgeous place, this bummed me out. BUT, we were going on a SOUND OF MUSIC BIKE TOUR. So, I was pretty pumped too. After breakfast, we took the train to Salzburg and then walked to the Mirabell park center. We found all the bikes so we figured that was the correct place to be. Our tour guide told us which bikes to get and we each tried to find one of the correct height. I chose a white bike that said Sister Bernice on it. It was pretty adorbs. We rode around a little bit to get the hang of the bikes. they were pretty large bikes. They had huge handlebars and were a little hard to get the hang of at first. Our tour group had 16 of just our Freed people, so that was good because we all knew each other and didn’t have any strangers with us. That meant we could sing and be as weird as we wanted. Abby was very nervous about our bike tour because she doesn’t really like riding bikes, but she was ready to tackle it anyway. The bike tour was going to go past several points in the city, and then extend into the country to see some more scenes from the movie. We started at the city center and our first stop was by the horse murals and horse fountain. She and the kids skip past it when singing. We then went to the felsenreitschule which is the stone concert house that the von Trapp family sings at before they escape. The real von Trapp family also sang there and also won the competition. They actually didn’t escape until I think 3 years later though. We also saw the location from there where Maria stands when she exits the Abbey and is on her way to the von Trapp house for the first time. There we also saw the gate that Rolf walked through to deliver the message to the Captain, but he was on his honeymoon. From there, we rode to Residenplatz Square and Residence Fountain. This is where Maria is singing the “I Have Confidence in Me” song and she splashes the water in the second horse fountain. That was so fun to mimic her. From there, we went to the St. Peter’s Monastery, Cemetery, and Catacombs. That is what inspired the cemetery in the movie. It was a beautiful cemetery, and I can see why the director would want to include such a cool scene in the movie. We were in a location where small booths are set up with food and gifts so she wanted us to get a pretzel or drink and take a bathroom break before we biked out of the city. We had to bike up this small road up a steep hill to reach the Hohensalzburg castle, which sits up on a hill above the city. By bike, I mean walk. We walked our bikes up that bad boy. When we reached the top, we also reached the Nonnberg Priory. The only scene actually shot in the convent was the beginning scene of the movie with the nuns singing, but it was inspiration for the abbey in the movie. The locations they used for the abbey were actually located like 30 minutes away in a different city. The gate outside the convent was used in the film when Maria is leaving for the von Trapp family house and when the nuns remove the car parts from the Nazi cars and admit doing it. It was also the same place the children went to look for Maria after she left them. We stopped outside the convent to look at the view, which was breathtaking. You could see Maria’s mountain and the Bavarian Alps and some other mountains. The alps are always gorgeous with their snow capped rocky beauty. You could see the whole city too. The mountains were beautiful from up there though. We sat around this tree that was also in the movie while we appreciated the scenery. From that location, we rode down the hill and out of the city and onto some bike paths that led to the country. We started riding past some wide open green fields with the alps in the background, that was perfection. I really started to feel like I was in the movie/ part of the von Trapp family. It was not real. It couldn't be. I was riding a cute little bike through the fields of Salzburg, Austria just casually gazing at the Alps. No big deal. Our next stop was the pond scene where the children and Maria fall out of the boat. It was actually not behind the house, but across the pond from the back of the house. It was pretty shallow there but our tour guide told us that Gretl couldn’t swim so Maria’s job was to grab her when they fell in. The first take went great, but then they dried off, fixed hair and makeup, and filmed another take. Well in this one, the one in the movie, Maria fell backwards off the boat and couldn’t grab Gretl. One of the crew members had to jump in and grab her before she swallowed too much water. She wasn’t harmed, but that was pretty interesting. She also explained how since the lake location where they came out of the canoe was across the lake from the back of the house, then the filming was a bit complicated when they switched from the back of the house to the lake. Our guide also yodeled for us and we could hear it echo back. It was awesome. We then rode the bikes around the lake and through a lot of beautiful trees. You feel like you are in the movie the whole ride. We arrived at the front of the house, which is now a music school. We couldn’t go to the back of the house and look at it closely since it was private land. It is actually owned by Harvard I believe. The gazebo is also not located there, they moved it to a different location because the owners were tired of people breaking into it all the time. The front of the house is where Maria first arrives and does her heel click, so we did a lot of those there. There was nothing actually filmed inside this house. That was all a Hollywood set. The gazebo is actually a Hollywood set too when filmed inside. The outside of the gazebo was the one in Salzburg though. Across from the house is this wide open field with the backdrop of the Alps. We spun and sang the Sound of Music song and took a lot of pictures. I forgot to mention that the tour guide also has a speaker in one of our bike baskets and plays The Sound of Music songs the whole time we are riding. Isn’t that perfect? Anyway, we continued on and rode to the location of the gazebo. We took some pictures here and did the WEEEEE thing that Liesl does after she kisses Rolf. You can’t go into the gazebo because a bunch of clumsy noobs ruined that for us by injuring themselves leaping the benches. Come on people. After that, we rode back to Mirabell gardens. This is where the steps are located where Maria sings with the children, where they run around the fountain singing, where they run under an arched ivy covered pathway, and where the trolls that the children hide behind are located. We filmed a few action shots and took some pictures. Then, we returned the bikes and paid for our tour. Sharron was our guide and she was great. Just fab. We walked back to the gardens and explored the trolls some more and walked through the flower garden. We decided to eat at a recommended Mexican restaurant, but we weren’t really sure where it was. We walked for a good bit and finally found it, after getting turned around a lot. It was kind of fancy but super cute inside. It was like built into the cliff and so the inside was just like stone everywhere. Some of us shared some guacamole and chips. Some of the best guac Ive ever had. I also got chicken and cheese quesadillas. It was actually 4 or 5 small ones that came out on a big green palm like leaf on a plank. They also laid out about 10 different kinds of sauces in jars that you could try. I tried like 4 kinds and they were all so YUM. I had never eaten anything like that before. After that, most of the group went back to the hotel, but Hannah, Annah, and I wanted to see if we could find some hiking. First, we stopped in a store to get some snacks for the long train ride tomorrow. It was the most maze like store I have ever been it, it had so many options and different kinds of foods but it looked like a little market at first. I was shocked with all they had to offer. We then walked towards the mountain. We passed it at first and then found the right road but then we passed the entrance. We found a map and figured out the correct entrance. We thought anyway. We went to where the entrance was supposed to be, but I thought it would be a trail. Instead, we found very steep stairs that just kept winding. We were pretty unsure about climbing up them since we didn’t know what was at the top. I was determined to hike a little and see a view so we went for it. Up, up, up the stairs. There was a wall that wrapped around the mountain and a trail that ran along it. We started walking along the trail and saw a pretty good view of the Alps. We weren’t sure about continuing on because it just felt like we were in the city and we wanted some nature. We just kept inching along though. We eventually ran into some nature trails. We decided to walk down them and see what we could find. We just kept hiking through the forest and finding new trails. We weren’t totally sure where we were going, but there were benches, paved roads here and there, and people so we didn’t feel too lost. After wandering for about 30 minutes or so, we actually found ourselves back at the entrance. Somehow we made a loop without realizing it. We didn’t really stay on one path the whole time either. We just took whatever path looked the best. That was lucky because we were about done with hiking by that point. We walked back to the train station and then came back to the hotel. It was an adventurous and memory filled day.

Fun Facts: I bought some cookies called Manner which originate from Vienna and I am excited to try them. Abby did a great job on the bike ride despite her hesitance. She only maybe allegedly hit a wall once. I will miss Austria and Germany. They are some beautiful places. Some of the German/Austrian people we encountered are pretty pushy and rude. Which is typical of most places I suppose. We just had more run ins here. We had the right away in a cross walk and this guy in a car just kept driving and was about to hit us. Once we were out of his way, he rolled down his window and yelled at us in German. I think he was telling us to ride faster. RUDE. We will take all the time we want Mr. Rude Austrian. Rude people are probably one of my biggest pet peeves.

Shoutout: My parents for loving the Sound of Music/WWII history. Your influence allowed me to enjoy one of the best bike tours ever.