The
recent release of
The Sound of Music, 40th Anniversary DVD Edition, has no doubt warmed the cockles of music lovers everywhere.
While the blockbuster musical certainly inspired countless fans to pursue a singing career, that fantastic opening shot
of Julie Andrews twirling about the grass-covered Austrian Alps ignited an entirely different flame within me—and
I’m not talking about the one which engulfed Blake Edwards. I’m talking about hiking the Alps.
It would take me more than 20 years after first seeing the movie, however, before I was able to stand in Fraulein
Maria’s footsteps. Literally. Thanks to an homage-paying tour company located in Salzburg, Austria, I was not only able to
emulate the future Baroness von Trapp mountaintop dance which I found so mesmerizing in my youth, but I was also able to
visit numerous other Salzburg spots in which the move was filmed. The tour is campy, humorous, and nostalgically
rewarding—albeit, slightly embarrassing for the same proud Austrians who brought us Mozart.