Its now been 4 weeks since weve been away which is hard to digest and I dont fancy jumping on the scales anytime soon. Alarm was set for 8.00 am so we could have breakfast downstairs and be on the road by 9.00 am for the 60km drive to the ski resort town of Stowe.
No traffic issues encountered so it was an easy drive to the Von Trapp Family Lodge. You may find that name familiar and you would be right. It was made famous by the movie Sound Of Music starring Julie Andrews. Well what I did not know until quite recently is that the movie is actually based on a real story and there is a real Captain Von Trapp from Austria who had 7 children who were taught how to sing by a Nun named Maria who later married him.
Some of the movie is not true including the childrens names and the specific timelines of events but a lot is factually based and the reason I know this is because today we have the Von Trapp Family History tour here which included a Q & A session with
Marias grandson Sam Von Trapp. Sams father Johannes is the only living child of the Von Trapps and is 84 years old and was the third and last child Maria and Captain Von Trapp had after getting married.
The tour was really interesting about the real Maria Von Trapp who moved here to live in Stowe, Vermont after fleeing Salzburg, Austria from Hitler the day before they were going to be taken by the Nazis just like the movie, but they actually took a train to Italy before migrating here to USA rather than climbing over the alps to Switzerland (thanks Hollywood !).
Maria would develop this magical mountain property which was originally just her home to later include the hotel as it is today and Sams father now has majority control of the property and remains actively involved in the business. Other than learning about the family history we also watched a family video taken when Maria made a return to Salzburg a couple of years before her death in 1987 and we also saw the family burial grounds where both Captain and Maria Von Trapp are now resting.
the tour we decided to have lunch here and I had a Johannesburger (grass fed burger) and much to my surprise I was asked how you would like it cooked !. We certainly dont get asked that at home where its always cooked however It came with a small salad (this could also be called a bowl of lettuce with 2 cherry tomatoes !). Kerry had the prime rib sandwich with a small portion of fries with au jus on the side for dipping.
As we were leaving we were taking a couple of photos from the front of the hotel and guess who we bumped into ? It was none other than our newfound friend from Minnesota, Beth with whom we enjoyed the fireside evening reception with last night along with her sister Bonnie and mom Jackie.
As a proud and passionate Vikings fan she was not impressed to see me wearing my Green Bay Packers as they are fierce rivals in the NFL but she still agreed to pose in a photo for us. Turns out we must have only missed them at breakfast by a few minutes and
Georg was born 4th April 1889 and died 30th May 1947 not long after arriving in Stowe Vermont. Maria was born 26th January 1905 and died on 23rd March 1987.
we were both a little disappointed we were not able to resume the evening reception discussion again tonight but they sure have a long way still to travel to get to Bar Harbor, Maine as it was now almost 2pm.
We then drove to the little village of Stowe to hunt down a Vermont licence plate from one of their souvenir stores but I had no luck so we headed down to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill factory where we bought a sample of 4 different cider drinks and also bought a six pack of apple cider donuts (or should I say we devoured these !). Afterwards I had a look in the gift store and I bought some Maple Syrup Peanut Brittle to try later and why not at the same time get another six pack of donuts !
The weather today has been a bit warmer reaching 22 degrees so hopefully we can put the cold clothes away for good.
