The D8 (Adriatic Highway) at Podimoć, Croatia: One of Europe's Most Beautiful Roads

Iceland & South-Central Europe Road Journey

This 12-episode travel series follows a sweeping journey from Washington, DC to Iceland’s volcanic wilderness and onward into the imperial heart of Central Europe. What begins as a full circumnavigation of Iceland’s Ring Road evolves into a cross-border road loop through Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Slovenia.

Along the way, the series moves from glaciers and geysers to Habsburg palaces, medieval old towns, Alpine fortresses, film locations, Tesla’s birthplace, and the dramatic Adriatic coast. It is a geographically continuous, historically layered, self-drive journey linking raw landscapes with Europe’s cultural and architectural backbone.

The hills are definitely still alive here. Mehlweg Meadow in Marktschellenberg, Germany – the precise, obscure spot where Julie Andrews spun and sang the film's iconic opening.

Fresh from climbing all over "Where Eagles Dare" Burg Hohenwerfen, we figured we weren't done playing movie detective. So we ditched the idea of a crowded bus tour and cooked up our own DIY Sound of Music tour. Our mission? To hunt down the real, authentic Sound of Music filming locations. We decided to skip the tourist herd in Salzburg for now - we'll circle back - and pointed our rental Nissan Qashqai toward the German border.

Our main target was the real "Julie's Meadow," the alpine stage for cinema's most famous twirl. And here's the kicker that almost everyone gets wrong: that magical opening shot wasn't filmed in Austria at all. We were crossing into Bavaria in Germany to find a tiny hamlet called Mehlweg. It's home to a private meadow that somehow launched a million singalongs. No pressure, little field.

Vagabond Tip: The specific slope is part of the Mehlweg 18 farmstead. While the coordinates 47.6890°N, 13.0657°E are precise, the Bayerisches Landesamt für Digitalisierung, Breitband und Vermessung (the actual authority for these maps) notes this is technically the Gollstein ridge. Cameraman Paul Beeson specifically chose this spot because the Hoher Göll mountain provides the jagged backdrop that Salzburg’s local Gaisberg lacked. Arrive by 6:30 AM to catch the "side-lighting" Beeson favored for 70mm Todd-AO film stock.

Now, most standard tours gloss over the chaos behind this spot. But the logistics were a real nightmare. We left Hohenwerfen Fortress and crossed into Bavaria, armed not with a tour guide, but with the production logs of cameraman Paul Beeson. The crew didn't just fight the slope; they fought the sound. A nearby mountain brook was so loud it drowned out the playback music Julie Andrews needed to lip-sync to.

To get the shot, the crew had to actually dam the stream. Then they covered the riverbed with rubber mats and fir branches to muffle the rushing water. Talk about noise cancellation, 1960s style. We parked the Nissan and hiked the final stretch, remembering that on this very incline, the downdraft from the helicopter famously kept knocking Julie Andrews flat into the mud.

And get this: it was Beeson himself who hung out of that helicopter to get the shot, strapped in by just a harness. The kicker? He was wearing a full suit and tie because he'd been pulled straight from a formal dinner to replace the terrified main operator. That's dedication - or a really confusing dinner invitation.

Neues Rathaus, Marienplatz, Munich (composite)

If we have more than four hours at Munich Airport (MUC), we do not sit at the gate watching planes taxi like it is prime-time television. We take the S-Bahn into the city and head straight to Marienplatz to watch the Rathaus-Glockenspiel do its mechanical thing. It is easy, efficient, and very German in its punctuality.

How to spend a 4-hour layover in Munich: Take S8 from Munich Airport to Marienplatz (about 38 minutes), watch the Rathaus-Glockenspiel at 11am or 12pm, explore the square for 60–90 minutes, then return to the airport using the Airport-City-Day-Ticket (€12.50 in 2016). Allow at least 40 minutes each way for train travel (MVV timetable data, mvv-muenchen.de).

Is 4 hours enough for Munich during a layover? Yes. With about 40 minutes each way on the S-Bahn and efficient airport processing, travelers typically have 60–90 minutes in Marienplatz before returning, provided they allow a proper security buffer.

Switzerland, France and Germany: A Trifecta of European Shenanigans

German side of the Three Countries Bridge Flags of Switzerland, France, Germany, the European Union and Weil am Rhein This bridge is so international it needs a passport just to cross itself

We did Switzerland, France, and Germany in one swing because borders here are less dramatic than our coffee needs.

Quick planning cheatsheet

• Currencies: Switzerland uses Swiss francs (CHF). France and Germany use euros (EUR).
• Emergency number: 112 works across the EU, and it also works in Switzerland.
• Power plugs: Switzerland uses Type J. France commonly uses Type E. Germany uses Type F.
• Getting around: Cities are built for walking plus public transport. Trains between countries are routine.
• Driving in Switzerland: Motorways require a vignette (toll sticker).

• Language: French is the default. Alsace also has a regional dialect (Alsatian) you may hear.
• Getting around: The historic center is very walkable, and Strasbourg has a modern tram network.
• What to pack: Rain happens. Umbrellas are helpful. So are shoes that don’t hate cobblestones.

Strasbourg basics we actually used

• Languages: German is the most common language in Zürich. Switzerland has four national languages overall: German, French, Italian, and Romansh.
• Water: Zürich’s public fountains are widely used for drinking water.
• Public transport: Trams and S-Bahn trains make it easy to skip driving inside the city.

Zürich basics we wish our wallet had read first

If you just want a simple route: Basel area for the “three countries” flex, Strasbourg for storybook streets, and Zürich for lakeside calm with big-city prices.

This long and juicy roadtrip travel guide takes you overland through the stunning heart of Europe:

• Cities: Paris (France) → Zürich (Switzerland) → Basel (Switzerland) → Huningue (France) → Three Countries Bridge (France, Germany, Switzerland) → Strasbourg (France) → Kehl (Germany) → Baden-Baden (Germany) → Heidelberg (Germany) → Triberg (Germany) → Meiringen (Switzerland) → Lucerne (Switzerland) → Venice (Italy)
• Provinces (Regions): Île-de-France (France) → Grand Est [Alsace] (France) → Canton of Zürich (Switzerland) → Canton of Aargau (Switzerland) → Canton of Basel-Stadt (Switzerland) → Baden-Württemberg (Germany) → Canton of Bern (Switzerland) → Canton of Obwalden (Switzerland) → Canton of Lucerne (Switzerland) → Canton of Glarus (Switzerland) → Veneto (Italy)

Europe has this funny habit of cramming multiple countries into spaces smaller than some American parking lots. Switzerland, France and Germany decided to play a particularly intense game of border hopscotch in this corner of the continent. We'd just finished ogling Parisian opulence and decided to trade baguettes for bratwurst via Switzerland, because why take the direct route when you can involve three currencies, four languages and enough bureaucracy to make a paperwork enthusiast weep with joy?

Our route was essentially a literary pub crawl with better scenery. We followed Victor Hugo's hunchback inspiration in Strasbourg, chased Dostoevsky's gambling demons in Baden-Baden, hunted Goethe's ginkgo poem in Heidelberg and nearly tumbled down the Reichenbach Falls like Sherlock Holmes' inconvenient demise. All this while dodging cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest that probably contained more intricate machinery than our first car.