That’s what the Trapp Family Lodge promises and calls itself. As Austrians we had to go up this hill behind Stowe and had to have a look what the Trapp family has build up during all the decades after they had to flee from the Nazis from their loved hometown Salzburg. As typical Austrians we knew almost nothing about them and had seen the Hollywood film „Sound of Music“ the first time on our flight to Halifax / Nova Scotia. We had made the experience already severaltimes that, mentioning that the so called „folksong“ „Edelweiss“ is unknown in Austria and that it is no traditional folksong,  all people in Canada or USA immediately start singing with wonderful voices this charming artificial Hollywood song. Sorry to say that we did not read Maria Trapps biography which surely would give a good and authentic impression of her life. So what to expect?

When we drove up the hill entering the huge estate we immediately were surprised by these authentic buildings  in some Salzburg or Tyrolean style like you could find them also at home. Just the size is a little bit different! We entered the Logdge and were greeted very politely by employees in nice traditional costumes. With the help of our Servas host friends Dave and Jackie we got the chance that one of the employees showed us a little bit around in the house. What we saw you will see in the image gallery. After a while we went out for a walk in the woods like at home strolling around the paths you could in winter use for cross country skiing or snowshoe hiking. Some nice crosses made of soft steel show the place where the passed away members of the family are buried and honoured.

Back in the lounge we enjoyed coffee, Trapp Lager beer and Apfelstrudel which tasted good like it would in some good beergarden or pastry shop in Linz. Looking at the Menu with really good food we just realized that eating or sleeping here would just go quite a lot over our budget.

By the helpful advice of the employees we could watch a half an hour video bringing Maria Trapps last trip to Salzburg and her personal testimonies about her life. It was really touching to hear and see how she met their housechaplain Fr. Wasner and her Co-novices after so many years! Also the testimony of her faith which carried her on through surly many hard years of her life never forgetting Austrian citizens suffering from WWII problems. I am happy to have had this chance of getting to know parts of her authentic story which very much changed our previous Hollywood dominated view.