The most beautiful spot in Austria
Jul 31st, 2008 by Editors
She left Austria 70 years ago. Together with her family she immigrated to the USA to escape the National Socialist regime. But she has always held fast to her love for music. Until 1956 she travelled the entire globe on her concert tours. Now, Maria von Trapp has embarked on a different kind of journey: a journey into her past.
During her stay in the Alpine republic, the member of the legendary ‘Trapp Family Singers’ went looking for her roots - and stroke lucky in Zell am See. Right next to Hotel Erlhof, she recognised the house where she was born in 1914. Without any doubt ‘the most beautiful spot in Austria’ she told the Austrian daily newspaper Wiener Kurier.
The 93-year-old, who lives in Vermont today, took the media circus around her visit in her stride. Instead of feeling bothered by the photographers who obstructed her view of mighty Kitzsteinhorn, she was joking with them: ‘The panorama is absolutely amazing here, but unfortunately I don’t really get a chance to take a glance!’
Maria von Trapp knows very well that Zell am See doesn’t only boast breathtaking scenery but has many culinary delights to offer as well. For this reason the former singer and missionary, whose family story inspired a Broadway musical and the film ‘The Sound of Music’ in 1965, decided to stop at the restaurant Lohninghof for some refreshment.
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