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Pictured above: the church in Mondsee where Maria and the Captain tied the knot, Nick and George atop "Maria's Mountain" (Schafsberg), and Julie Andrews as Maria.
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Forget Mozart and the famous Festspiel, the main attraction for any visitor to Salzburg should be The Sound of Music tour. Our enthusiastic British tourguide, Sue, showed us all the main sights and held our interest with facts and trivia about the 1965 film, all the while reminding us that Maria and the Von Trapps were real and distinctly different from the story we know. There were ten children for a start....
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What better advertisement than a fiberglass cow?
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This tree line avenue was featured in the film.
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The gazebo where Liesl and Rolf sang Sixteen Going on Seventeen. We were told that, in real life, the actress was 21 when singing the song to her 20 year old suitor. And you know about her bandaged ankle, right?
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I learned that Julie Andrews couldn't stop laughing during the filming of this scene - a piece of lighting equipment sounded "like a raspberry" - so the final version was shot in silhouette to hide the giggles.
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The gazebo is now locked to the public because an enthusiastic, elderly fan injured herself dancing on the seats.
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The house and lake used as the Von Trapp villa. When filming, Gretl couldn't swim, so Julie Andrews was supposed to rescue her when the boat tipped; however, the two went over opposite sides of the boat and the girl had to be rescued by one of the other children (whom she later threw up on).
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The view on the right is from our camera: the same view as this one from the film. Schafsberg mountain is in the background. We went up it a few days later.
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Our tour stopped for us to try out the summer toboggan.
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The view over St. Gilgen (where Mozart's mother was born).
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The interior of the "wedding church" in Mondsee.

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The Salzburg graveyard which inspired the hiding scene from the film. The actual scene was filmed on a Hollywood set.
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Julie Andrews hitting the top note at the end of Do, Re, Mi
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The view of Schafsberg outside Nonnberg Abbey. A long way for Maria to run when she heard the church bells in the film and hurried back to her life as a nun!
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Our interpretation of the same moment
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Nonnberg Abbey's courtyard
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A hanglider over Schafsberg (Sheep's Mountain)
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Wearing my Austrian hat
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The steam train like the Von Trapps used on their day out
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