My fellow bus tour passengers and I – all Sound of Music mega-fans – are belting out Do-Re-Mi as we are driven through the Austrian Lake District.
This is like a dream. I’ve been hooked on the hit 1965 Oscar-winning musical film since my late nana, auntie and mother introduced me to it years ago.
I would sit for hours as a child, transfixed by Julie Andrews twirling around the Austrian Alps, leading the von Trapp children through Salzburg and singing some of the iconic musical numbers.
As soon as nun Maria and the captain got married, I’d rewind the VHS to the beginning again and again (unaware of the dark end to the film, which is set on the eve of the Nazi takeover of Austria).
My auntie turns 60 this year (just like the film), so my mother and I are taking her to celebrate in Salzburg… with a nostalgic Sound of Music twist.
Nearly three million tourists visit this Austrian city of 160,000 residents every year – many because Mozart was born here (there’s an excellent museum).
Many others, however, come to immerse themselves in all things von Trapp.
My aunt, mother and I have joined Panorama Tours. This company transported the film’s stars and crew in 1964 – and now handles 140,000 Sound of Music devotees annually.
Self-confessed Sound of Music ‘mega fan’ Hayley Minn, with her mum, right, and auntie, on a Panorama Tour of Salzburg
Panorama Tours transported the film’s stars and crew in 1964 – and now handles 140,000 Sound of Music devotees annually
Releasd in 1965, The Sound of Music was awarded five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It starred Julie Andrews as its protagonist, Maria
Our first stop is Schloss Hellbrunn, a castle to the south of the city centre. Here, I well up while walking through the palace gardens as I spot the glass conservatory from my favourite scene.
Memories come flooding back of watching Liesl von Trapp and desperately wishing I was her as she pranced around with Rolf Gruber, singing Sixteen Going On Seventeen.
But this has nothing on Schloss Leopoldskron, the next stop.
Built in 1736, the magical palace-turned-luxury hotel has extensive, awe-inspiring grounds, which were used for exterior scenes in the film.
The hotel is also encircled by a lovely, crystal-clear lake, with the sun glistening off the waters (when we went) and majestic Alpine views. And thanks to motorised boats being banned, it’s blissfully quiet.
Next, our coach stops in Mondsee to explore the church where Maria and the captain are married.
Then we return to Salzburg, where we pull into our final stop: Mirabellplatz. Dotted around this palace’s perfectly preened gardens are an array of colourful flowers and plants.
More importantly, as far as we’re concerned, many of the scenes featuring the song Do-Re-Mi were filmed here, including when Maria and the von Trapp kids march by the garden’s Pegasus fountain.
The first stop on Hayley and her family’s tour is Schloss Hellbrunn, a castle to the south of the city centre, where scenes of the movie were filmed
My auntie and I – quite literally – jump at the chance to recreate the moment, alongside just about everyone else on the tour.
After glorious sunshine for our first day in Salzburg, it pours with rain the next, putting a dampener on our plans for a Sound of Music hiking tour from Werfen up to Gschwandtanger, to picnic where Maria and the children did.
Instead, we head down into Salzwelten Hallstatt, the salt mines, to see the ‘white gold’ that made Salzburg prince-archbishops so rich and powerful.
Nothing to do with The Sound of Music, yet it’s a fascinating tour, and the three of us feel like big kids, screaming and giggling as we slide further and further below the ground on shuttles as salt miners once did.
We explore other city sights too: the Marionette Theatre and Mozart’s birthplace. And Salzburg is, we find, full of quaint little restaurants, shops and bars, which run either side of the Salzach River.
If, like Maria, schnitzel with noodles is one of your favourite things, you’re in luck.
They’re on the menu pretty much everywhere, including at the excellent Goldener Hirsch (restaurantgoldenerhirsch.at) and Zirkelwirt (zumzirkelwirt.at) restaurants.
We have gone to Salzburg, followed in the footsteps of Julie Andrews – and we return humming the old songs, as happy as the von Trapps traipsing round the Austrian hillsides all those years ago.
TRAVEL FACTS
Return Stansted-Salzburg flights from £35 (ryanair.com); doubles at the charming, centrally located Altstadthotel Weisse Taube from £82 (weissetaube.at); four-hour Sound of Music tours from £52pp (panoramatours.com). More information: austria.info.
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