4/2/12 Sound of Music

4/2/12
Sorry this blog is going to be kind of long, but it is super interesting so read it!!!  Today I did the Sound of Music tour!  It was a BLAST!!  First off I will talk about the actual story of the Von Trapp family.  Maria lost her parents when she was a child.  She went off to live with distant relatives.  She grew up as an atheist.  She loved music and she heard a religious choir and decided that she wanted to become a nun.  Mr. Von Trapp lost his wife and was left with seven children.  One of the children became really sick, so they wanted a nanny for her, so Mr. Von Trapp went to the Abby (convent) to get a nanny.  Maria went to take care of the child.  When it was time for her to go back to the convent, the children did not want her to go.  The captain said the only way she could say was if he married her.  The children ran to Maria and asked if she liked the captain.  She said well yes we get along.  The captain walked up to Maria and said I am happy you said yes to marry me.  Maria was like I did?  Then they got married!  They did escape from the Germans, except they did not climb mountains.  When we went on the tour the mountain that they climbed in the movie, that we saw, leads to Germany.  They actually took a train to Italy then flew to America.  They had three more children, and now the grandchildren live in Vermont where they have a hotel and you can meet them!

We saw pretty much all the places that were used within the film.  Our first stop was the back yard of the Von Trapp home.  The lake, the grass, the balcony, and the gazebo were used for scenes within the movie.  The gazebo is not at this house anymore because people would jump the fence and disturb the people in what is now a hotel.  They moved the gazebo to a park by the confidence path.  The confidence path is where Maria danced and sang the confidence song on her way to meet the Von Trapp family.  My friends and I also danced on the confidence path with a lot of confidence with a tad bit of dizziness.  Also by the confidence path is where they filmed the front side of the house and the backside.  This house is in a different location and not by a lake.  When they do scenes with the lake and the back of the house, they take place in different locations.  This was difficult for the actors.  For example, when Maria and the children fall out of the boat and the captain is lecturing her, the lake is in the background of where the captain is standing, and the other house by confidence lane is where Maria is standing.  They had to shoot the scene in two different locations.  I hope that makes sense.  The house by confidence lane is also scene when Maria walks up to the gate and door for the first time, and when they push the car around the gate.  The inside of the house and convent were filmed in Fox Studies.

The convent used in the film is the actual convent that the actual Maria lived.  The actual Maria is actually in the movie too.  We drove by, but I do not know if I got good pictures because the bus was going kind of fast.  This was a sing a long bus.  We sang all the songs together while we took an hour drive to the church that they used to film the marriage scene.  On the way there we stopped at an overlook to see where they filmed the opening scenic view and the mountain they used to sing the song Climb Every Mountain.  The view was amazing!  By far the best part of any trip!  I felt like I was on top of the world!  I have not seen anything like it before.  The movie and my pictures do not give it justice!  It was amazing!  When we got to the church, there were also souvenir shops and the best apple strudel ever!   The town was gorgeous with a lake and mountains!  What a great day!

Now boys, I have a great way for you to win over a girl’s heart!  Back in the day, when a guy fell in love with a girl, guys would climb to the very top of a very dangerous mountain and pick Edelweiss (a white flower) and give it to the woman of their dreams.  How sweet is that?!  Edelweiss is the Austrian flower.  Also it is my favorite song from the movie!

After the tour was over, we went to the garden where they filmed part of the Doe Ray Me song.  The garden was so cool!  I danced through the vine covered walk way, ran around the fountain, jumped on the steps, and patted the dwarfs head just as they did during the song!  It was so awesome!  I was Julie Andrews for the day (only I am not as cool as her!).  Overall it was one of my top days!  Sound of Music will forever be my favorite movie of all time!

Auf weidersehn!