- This Alpine market town was once part of the Habsburg Empire, later, part of Bavaria, and much, much later, home to the winter Olympics.

(speaking German) (upbeat music) Curious Traveler is made possible by the following.

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(upbeat music) - Charming doesn't even begin to describe this historic Austrian city.

With its golden roof, its snowy white mountain peaks and its multi-colored old town (speaking foreign language.)

Innsbruck is the capital of the state of Tyrol in Western Austria and is nestled within the majestic Alps.

It began as a small Bavarian market town and later became part of the mighty Habsburg Empire, the Holy Roman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

So why was this location so important?

Well, because Innsbruck was an important crossroads between the trade routes to Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the rest of Western Europe.

And all that trade happened over a very important bridge as we will soon see.

So, here's what I'm curious about in Innsbruck.

Who lived here because she wasn't allowed to live here.

And who required that all these rooms be pink?

What was this copper capped balcony built for?

Where can you find Lüftlmalerei and some snow loving peacocks?

(peacock calls) Why are there floating sculptures on this mountain and why are all these windows shutters red and white striped?

When did some giants move out of this palace to make way for Marie Antoinette?

And how are you going to convince yourself to ride in this crazy thing?

Nice knowing ya, bye-bye!

Who, what, where, why, when and how?

So much to be curious about in Innsbruck Austria.

(cheerful piano music) We begin our curious journey into Innsbruck where it began along the Inn river.

This is a very important spot for two reasons.

These beautiful, colorful buildings behind me are part of a neighborhood called "Maria Hilft".

And that means Mary helps.

And it's named after a church in the area dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Now over here, you will see a bridge which is also important to Innsbruck, because Innsbruck means bridge over the river Inn.

That's right, that's where we get the name Innsbruck, from the Inn river and "Brücke" meaning bridge.

And that bridge led travelers into a medieval gate within a medieval wall.

There are still a few spots where you can make out where that wall once stood, which we will explore soon.

But first we explore what is within those walls, Innsbruck's historic old town or "Altstadt," a fairytale town full of narrow winding cobblestone streets in between medieval houses, former guild halls and simple merchant shops.

With those ornate iron shop signs hanging overhead, enticing you to come shop inside.

(enticing music) There are lots of lovely little arcades and two clock towers.

One where soldiers used to keep watch.

And the other all dressed up in pink, used to call the townspeople to church.

Many, many colors brighten up the old town and often there are murals on the outside of the buildings a Bavarian and Austrian tradition called "Lüftlmalerei."

And the building that really takes the cake, looks like a cake.

This is the Helbling house.

It looks like a multi-layered wedding cake, right?

Well the Helbling house dates back to the 15th century, but all this Baroque Rococo splendor happened in the early 18th century, when the owners decided to attract some attention with these overflowing flowers, garlands, and a sprinkle of happy little cherubs.

And attract it does.

The beauty and the bright colors continue down Maria-Theresien-Straße, named for Austrian Empress Maria Theresa.

Built 700 years ago, today's shops used to be palaces and mansions of the upper class who simply wanted to live outside the city walls.

Today it is a wide, open, beautiful shopping street with plenty of Lüftlmalerei to enjoy.

(orchestral music) Now we turn back around to get the best view of the symbol of this curious and colorful city.

(angelic music) With its 2,657 individual tiles, The famous Golden Roof of Innsbruck has been overlooking the old town for more than 500 years.

Why something so ornate for a medieval town?

Well, quite simply because the Royal family used to live here.

And Emperor Maximilian I wanted to impress everyone who came into his town and impress it did.

And wouldn't you know it, the Golden Roof has some wonderful curiosities.

Look closely at the reliefs along the top.

In the center is Maximilian with his two wives.

Both marriages expanded his empire.

The Habsburgs did that a lot with their marriages.

But, what I'm really curious are these guys.

Are these medieval break dancers?

These are actually "Moriske" or Morris dancers, basically, the court gestures or entertainers of their time.

Seriously, how flexible is this guy?

(light accordion music) Next, just a few steps away from the Golden Roof is another curious remnant of the original town, which also happens to be a tasty one.

Once upon a time a medieval city wall encircled all of Innsbruck.

And this tower is the only part that remains and dates back to 1180.

Today, you can still enjoy it, but in a slightly different way.

It has a restaurant that serves authentic Austrian cuisine.

The darling Ottoburg restaurant is inside this once mighty tower of the medieval wall and directly overlooks our Innsbruck bridge.

But what I'm really curious about are these red and white striped window shutters.

You'll see them all over Austria.

Why?

Well, one theory is that they symbolize the Austrian flag.

How cute is that?

Now, let's head back inside the tower for lunch.

Just look at this fairytale cottage style interior.

Wooden beams overhead, those hand carved chairs with proud eagles and little knights, all sitting at attention around little tables, all dressed up in white.

And on our table is the traditional Austrian dish of "Tafelspitz."

A favorite of Emperor Franz Joseph.

And Tafelspitz must be eaten in a certain way.

And if you do it wrong a true Austrian might even help you out.

(camera shutter clicks) All this darling tradition framed with some wispy white curtains over lovely little windows with possibly the best view over darling old town.

(upbeat music) Next we stroll back through old town under the golden roof and to this grand archway to find the glorious magnificent Hofburg Palace.

The palace is where the Austrian Royal family once lived and was built in the exact same spot as the original medieval city wall.

(elegant music) The Imperial palace was completed under Emperor Maximilian I, but, around 250 years later when Maria Theresa saw it, believe it or not she said this place needs a makeover.

And that's exactly what she did.

She redid the palace in the Viennese late Baroque style and perhaps the most opulent of the rooms is this one, called the Giants' Hall.

Now it's called the Giants' Hall because back under Emperor Maximilian I we had beautiful paintings and statues of Greek and Roman gods.

But of course, when Maria Theresa came around she changed it completely.

So today we have these beautiful panels of each of her 16 children.

And those Habsburg children grew up to become very important figures in European history.

Two became holy Roman emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II.

Maria Carolina became the queen of Naples and Sicily, but perhaps the most famous is Marie Antoinette of "let them eat cake" fame.

On the ceiling of Giant's Hall is a giant fresco called "The Glorification of the Union of the Houses of Habsburg and Lorraine."

Maria Theresa was a Habsburg and her beloved husband, Francis, was a member of the Lorraine dynasty.

You'd be smiling like this too if you had an empire as big as the Habsburgs.

Through the many beautiful Baroque state rooms of Hofburg, we find a blue room and a green room and a pink room.

Actually, pink rooms, plural, all for Empress Elizabeth most beloved by the people.

Sort of the Princess Diana of the 1800s.

She was known affectionately as Sisi.

A very special part of the palace are these apartments.

These were Sisi's apartments.

Now Sisi was married to Emperor Franz Joseph and was much loved among the people.

She was known for her beauty, her fashion sense and her extra long hair.

In fact, this beautiful room, all decked out in pink silk was her dressing room.

So on this chaise right here, it's possible, that's where she laid to have her hair done for three hours.

Here's the funny part though, with all these beautiful, lavish apartments, just for her, she only visited the palace four times.

Well, yeah, of course one needs this room and this room and this room for four visits, one room for each visit I guess.

(elegant music) Next we go from the splendor of Sisi's rooms to another part of the palace, and we also go back in time to the years of Maria Theresa and her beloved husband Francis.

And this room is no longer just a room.

Because this was where Francis the first died in 1765.

Maria Theresa had this chapel built on that same spot in his honor.

Now the chapel doesn't host regular service or Mass throughout the year, except for one day a year.

That same day that Francis the first passed.

A Mass is held here in his honor.

Maria Theresa never got over the loss of her husband.

His funeral was held here in the Giants' Hall.

And Maria Theresa even founded a "Damenstift" in his honor.

A Damenstift is a noble ladies foundation.

Sort of a secular convent where the women prayed for Francis several times a day.

Believe it or not, that Damenstift still exists today.

And there is one more grand gesture to mark the Empress's morning.

This giant Roman inspired triumphal arch located in a busy Innsbruck intersection.

One side is dedicated to Francis and the other to the wedding of their son Leopold, because Francis died during Leopold's wedding celebrations.

Fittingly, the arch marks the end of Maria Theresien Street.

And guess what, it was made out of one of those old medieval gates.

How curious.

(elegant music) Next, we go from the official Royal Palace of Hofburg to another Royal residence, which was built for a very curious reason.

So it's up a mountain we go, to Ambras Castle.

There was once a medieval castle here, home to Counts and Princes of Tyrol and Bavaria.

But this modern version, if you can call the 16th century modern was home to Archduke Ferdinand II.

And today, it is home to a couple of happy peacocks who don't seem to mind the snow.

(peacock calls) Archduke Ferdinand was known for spreading Renaissance culture throughout the empire.

And that Renaissance's influence can be seen in the beauty of Ambras Castle.

And look, there's that tradition of those red and white stripes shutters again, symbolizing the Austrian flag.

There's also art everywhere here.

From the sculpture gardens to the famous Spanish hall, which is where we meet our new friend and Innsbruck expert, Monica Grassmayr.

Her family has lived in Innsbruck for many generations.

And as soon as I came in, I said "Oh my goodness it looks like a thousand wooden carved doors that are stuck up on the ceiling."

So what is it about the puzzle pieces that make it hard to?

- Because there's not one nail in this in the ceiling.

- No nails?

- No, all the pieces stick together.

- Wow.

- And, but we don't know which was the last piece they put, and if you don't know it, we can't renovate it and it's difficult because when you put it out, everything is falling down.

- Right.

- Therefore, - So what we see now has never been renovated?

- Never.

- [Christine] The Spanish hall was designed to host grand balls and parties with fine portraits of the leaders of Tyrol, from the year 800 through 1550, forever greeting guests.

And of course giving the impression of power here in Innsbruck.

How important was Tyrol and Innsbruck in this time period?

- In this time, it was the most important place of Europe.

Innsbruck was the residential town, Here, the Kaiser was living.

He was the director of the German empire.

He was the largest collector of armor.

This town, city, Innsbruck was the center of your, more important than London and Vienna and Paris and so on.

- That's Amazing.

So now we get to the curious reason why this version of Ambras Castle was built.

It was all for Ferdinand's beloved wife, Philippine.

Why?

Well, there was a little bit of juicy gossip about them back in the 1500s.

Ferdinand's father was the Holy Roman Emperor and didn't approve of Philippine, saying she was of low birth and low status.

So she wasn't allowed to live in the official Royal palace, the Hofburg.

(sad trombone playing) But, the good news is that Ferdinand told them all to buzz off and lived a blissful life with his sweetheart here in Ambras Castle.

In fact, there is a curious room here in the castle where they love to spend time together in their high tech spa.

Well, high tech for the 16th century.

We are in a very interesting part of the castle.

So we've seen some grand spaces.

A bathroom may not seem so grand in modern times but when this was built this was really advanced technology.

- Oh yes, it was, it was.

because it wasn't, cause no one had it.

And this was clever.

Yeah.

They had a fire and they had stones in the fire.

- [Christine] Okay.

- [Monica] When the stones were hot they put it here in the water.

- [Christine] Okay.

- And it was a steam bath and the couple, the Archduke was sitting here with his wife like modern couple, just a steam bath.

- So they'd sit.

So that's kind of like our modern day sauna, but nobody had those - Private sauna, private sauna for them.

- Oh, that's fantastic.

Okay, So from the sauna, we get to go in another chamber.

So let's go through here and we'll go through and I love how we have to go through a little labyrinth here.

And then in this room, what was this room for?

- [Monica] Here they could rest.

- [Christine] Okay.

- [Monica] And if you put in the fire, it keeps warm all day long.

It stores the heat.

- So this is a furnace, and it's heated by the same elements we saw in the other room.

- Yes.

- Oh, fantastic.

And I have to ask you in this room the first thing I see are all these beautiful frescos at the top.

Was that meant to mimic, like, the ancient Roman baths?

- Yes, the Roman baths, because everyone spoke of it.

But then they didn't like the Roman baths because illness spread always.

And they said, you get ill when you wash yourself.

- Which isn't true.

(laughs) - That was, but there was a reason, - Yeah.

- why people didn't wash themselves in middle age, because they saw you get ill when you wash yourself.

- Right.

And then of course they got even more ill because they weren't washing themselves.

(laughs) And we have one last room here.

This one might be my favorite.

I love that the doorways are short, just like us.

Okay, so this looks like the greatest bathtub on the planet.

- [Monica] The water is coming throughout the room - [Christine] Okay.

- [Monica] And they were sitting down here.

- So this huge, this is the size of a small pool.

This was their bathtub.

- This was their pool.

- Really?

- Yeah, they were sitting together.

The husband, obviously girlfriends, when he wasn't here because he was in a battlefield, he was sitting here with the girlfriends.

- Oh, okay.

Oh, her girlfriends.

I thought you meant who his, okay, nevermind.

- No, no.

- Sorry, her friends.

(laughs) And then if they're up at this level you have this beautiful view out through all the grounds there.

(calming piano music) Next, those snowy Alps are calling.

So, we go from the heat of a Renaissance sauna back out into the winter wonderland of Innsbruck.

Innsbruck is world famous for its skiing and ski resorts.

It has hosted multiple winter Olympics.

And look, no matter where you go, just count to 10 and you'll see another skier, and another skier, and another skier carrying their skis to and fro.

Yep.

I'd say skiing is pretty popular around here.

So, in 1906, a wonderful way to get from the historic city center up to the mountains to go skiing was built, and its name is a tricky one.

This is the Hungerburgbahn.

It takes you up to the top of Nordkette mountain.

But, you're gonna wanna hold on.

It gets pretty steep.

Whoosh.

You go from city to Alpine wonderland in just a few minutes.

Nordkette mountain is part of Austria's largest conservation area.

The Karwendel Nature Park.

The park is one of Europe's oldest nature reserves, established in 1928.

What a way to experience it, just as the snow is falling down with 360 degree views here from inside the cable car.

(gentle music) - But the Hungerburg Funicular isn't just a fun way to get up the side of the mountain.

These stations are works of art.

The modern architectural design was inspired by natural ice formations and it's called shell and shadow.

The architect was Zaha Hadid, who was the very first woman ever to receive the Pritzker Architecture Award.

British architect, Zaha Hadid, designed four of these artsy cable car stations.

Each a different expression of the Alpine landscape here in Tyrol.

Her mesmerizing wait list, futuristic designs are internationally recognized.

She also designed Innsbruck's famous Bergisel Ski Jump, which mimics the slope of the mountain, reaching up to the sky.

But for the history of how the original cable cars were built way up here, there is the nearby cable railway museum built inside a former wooden schoolhouse.

These vintage photos take you back to the 1930s, complete with the stereoscope Panorama of the surrounding mountains.

The engineering Marvel that is the cable car that has been integral to the skiing heritage of Innsbruck is fantastic.

But, you also have to appreciate those vintage après-ski clothing styles and poses, right?

(gentle music) For our final stop, we're staying up in the mountains.

But, instead of doing some skiing, we participate in another age old Alpine tradition, a tradition I think begun by someone who wanted to get down the mountain in the scariest way possible.

In 1976, Innsbruck hosted the winter Olympic games.

The best of the best from around the world all came here to compete in all manner of winter sports, like skiing and skating and bobsledding.

Which brings us to this unique race track behind me.

This is the actual bobsleigh run that the Olympians used.

And today anybody can try it.

Lucky for me.

So we've all ridden a sleigh down a little hill when we were children, right?

But who in the world invented this rocket ship on ice called the bobsled or bobsleigh?

Well, it all started in the late 1800s in Switzerland.

Simply as a fun activity for vacationers.

Two sleds were tied together so that four people could ride together.

Okay, so that's where the sled part comes in.

But, you want to guess where the bob part comes from?

Well, that's from the bobbing back and forth technique to make the bobsled go faster.

Soon after its invention, bobsledding became a sport.

The first official bobsled competition was in 1898 in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

And later, it became an Olympic sport in 1924 in Chamonix, France.

All righty, nothing to be scared of, right?

Okay, and I'm way in the back, praying.

(speaking German) (laughing) So when, when we go on this and we go up, how high up does it go up on the thing?

- You saw the corners, no?

- Only from the outside.

Oh, so it's like this.

- You know, and in corner 10 it's a very huge one.

You're about half a meter underneath the woods.

There are lights and there's a root.

- Okay, okay.

- You are half a meter underneath.

- But we don't go over.

- No, no.

- Now you just go.

- You go up and then go.

- Awesome.

What's the worst that could happen?

Here goes nothing.

Boom!

(laughing) I think, I don't know.

I've forgotten my own name.

I can't remember the kind commands in German.

All right, deep breath.

(breathes rapidly) Nice knowing ya, bye bye!

Just listen to the swoosh along the ice.

(fast music) What a rush.

This has got to be the most exhilarating history lesson ever.

(upbeat music) So from a golden balcony with curious carvings of medieval break dancers and a medieval marriage or two.

To a building that looks as tasty as a wedding cake.

To some authentic Innsbruck cuisine housed inside the city's medieval walls, which sits right across from a bridge, which gave this town its name.

To some curious window decorations that are a proud symbol of Austrian pride.

To a fine palace full of fond family memories and some sad ones too.

To a castle high up in the mountains complete with an ornate ceiling that stands up all by itself.

And a high tech hot tub and a couple of happy peacocks who don't seem to mind the snow.

(peacock calls) To a funicular of the most curious kind dotted with giant modern sculptures that seem to magically float above the mountain.

To some rocket shaped sleds invented here in the Alps, which work best if you bob around and you hold on tight.

(speaking German) (laughing) Innsbruck has so much to be curious about.

Thank you for joining us on our educational journey, and hopefully now you're even more curious about the who, what, where, why, when and hows of curious Innsbruck.

As the Austrian say "auf wiedersehen!"

(fast music) Oh, that was so awesome, Yes!

(laughing) Oh my god that was, (group chattering) Curious Traveler is made possible by the following (orchestral music) - [Announcer] At Regent Seven Seas Cruises, we believe that personal space is essential to the luxury travel experience.

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- [Announcer] Over 300 tours across all seven continents.

Over 40 years of serving travelers you can experience effortless, fun vacations and authentic experiences with GET.

GETours.com - [Announcer] WindStar Cruises, intimate, private yacht style cruises to the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Tahiti, and more.

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