Have I said how much I enjoy the third day in a city? We had seen all that we "had" to see and had today to leave the map behind and find new things on our own!
We decided to try a different route into the old town and, as we went down one street, we heard music! There was a parade! 
It was the beginning of Salzburg Dult - an Austrian celebration - and there were horse drawn carriages, wagons (with beer kegs!) 
and several bands with the members dressed in traditional Austrian costumes! Several different groups were represented and each had their own colours and unique clothing. 
Sunday is Pentecost and "Mutter Tag" so it is holiday time - again!!
We'd tossed a few possibilities around about things to see and do today and finally decided to go up to Hohensalzburg Fortress - 400 feet above the river. It was never used for defence - the city surrendered when Napoleon arrived - but it is certainly formidable.
We took a funicular up the hill to the Fortress. 
Fabulous views of the mountains and the city below!
Inside the fort is a marionette museum. Small but quite interesting - especially with the Sound of Music connection! The marionettes here dated back to the 1900's and there is a theatre in town that does marionette shows on a regular basis - many Mozart operas and they have just opened The Sound of Music.
The state rooms of one of the archbishop were also in the fort - incredibly opulent...a real statement on the church of those days!! 
One of the archbishops we were told about in an earlier tour built one of the grand homes in the city for his MISTRESS...then had 15 children with her?!!
We did some more shopping down below then stopped in the market square and got a snack. Mom and Dad got struedel - bacon and sauerkraut for Dad and rhubarb and strawberry with a cheese cake like filling inside. DELICIOUS!!
I bought a chocolate covered "brezel" (soft pretzel). We took our treats and sat on the steps of a statue in Residenzplatz (in front of the Dom church and in the area where the buildings used in the Nazi flag scene in Sound of Music were!!) 
It was so nice to just sit and soak up the sun and watch the world go by! And what a world it is too!! Great people watching territory!
There are street performers everywhere - mimes, a harpist, a guitarist playing North American tunes?! and a counter tenor singing "Panis Angelicus" in front of Mozart's statue. If that doesn't interest you, there is always a chess game going on!
We then went to a Toy/Musical instrument museum. 400 years of musical instruments - clavichords, brass and woodwinds etc. There was a display that let you listen to some of the instruments and get an English explanation. 
The toys were interesting too - dolls and dollhouses from early 1800s,
tin toys from the 30's and 40's, rocking horses and teddy bears from the 1800's to present day.
Tomorrow we head to Vienna. We have tickets for a Viennese dinner followed by a Strauss concert so we will be immediately immersed in that city and it's culture!
