- Known for its stunning mountaintop views, a Habsburg history, and a couple of yodelers, it is time to get curious about the Austrian state of Tyrol.

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- This Austrian state in the Alps dates back to ancient times.

It has been a favorite of emperors, saints, and the Von Trapps, and now is a modern day ski haven.

Tyrol has so much to be curious about.

The Alpine region of Tyrol, Austria, brings to mind lederhosen, alphorns, cowbells, dirndls and, of course, lots and lots of skiing, and a little bit of yodeling, too.

(entertainers yodel) - Today, we are taking you to experience it all.

The Austrian state or region of Tyrol is in the Alps, with a long German, Italian, and of course, Austrian history.

The name Tyrol possibly comes from the name of an aristocratic family who once lived here, and the state of Tyrol dates back to at least the 12th century.

Throughout its history, Tyrol has retained its Catholic identity, a carryover from its Habsburg and Holy Roman Empire roots, and you can see signs of that faith, both big and small, throughout the region.

But Tyrol has also retained some of its ancient customs and traditions, too.

Before it was easy to hop from one mountain peak to the next, each valley had its own mini culture of sorts, with distinct dialects, traditions, and customs.

And of course, Tyrol has a rich skiing heritage, too, as the retreat for everyone from emperors to the apres ski elite, to modern day curious travelers.

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

Who built a beautiful little chapel way up here?

What does a pagan beast and Catholic tradition have to do with this children's parade?

Where can you dance the schuhplattler, and ski like a Nordic warrior, and drink a pine tree and eat an imperial mess?

Why are these paintings on the outside of houses?

When did an emperor and an empress sleep in this alpine resort?

And how do you make an igloo?

Seriously?

Are we going to make an igloo?

(dancer shouts) It's time to get curious about Tyrol.

Tyrol is, of course, known for its soaring mountain peaks, its deep valleys dotted with little colorful villages, and also a couple of scary cliffs, which brings us to this church, which is right on the cliff's edge.

Now why in the world would somebody build a church right on the edge of a cliff?

(voices vocalizing) This is the village of Sellrain in the Sellraintal Valley.

It dates back to at least the 13th century.

Saint Quirin is the oldest church in that valley, and is even on the Sellrain coat of arms.

And as you can't help but notice, Saint Quirin church is right there on the scarp or the cliff's edge.

Why?

Well, so that medieval pilgrims could see the church from afar.

But there's another theory about why this precarious place was chosen.

Legend says that Saint Quirin church was built as a thank you to God, by 14th century farmers, who had survived the plague.

But as the carpenter was chopping the wood for the church, he got hurt.

So some helpful birds and horses carried the logs the rest of the way up the mountain and chose this spot.

Locals saw this as a sign that this was where the church should be built because they believed Saint Quirin would ward off any future plagues, and Saint Quirin also happens to be a patron saint of animals.

Once inside you are surrounded by inspirational oil paintings and intricately carved wooden figures, dating back to the 18th century.

The overall experience is amazing.

All this history surrounding you up on top of a mountain and perhaps the best part, to this day, the churches' doors are never locked, so it still welcomes pilgrims from afar.

What a way to begin our curious journey through the Tyrolean Alps.

(bright music) Our next experience is a little less spiritual and a little more speedy, the long tradition of skiing in Tyrol.

Beautiful Kuhtai village started as a pilgrimage stop, later it became a farming village and today it is known for some of the best skiing in all of Tyrol.

Skiing is synonymous with the Alps of course, and with Austria, but who really invented skiing?

As you might imagine, skiing was originally just a practical way to get from "A," to "B," in the snow.

Just a couple of wooden planks strapped to your feet did the trick.

Skiing dates back to ancient times in Russia, China, and the Arctic circle.

During the Middle Ages, we know that Scandinavian hunters and warriors used skis, and in modern times, many countries use skiers in their military.

Ah, so that explains that weird Olympic biathlon.

And here in the Austrian Alps, downhill skiing versus cross country skiing was perfected into the sport and lifestyle it is today.

But that's not the only winter activity up here in Kuhtai, there is another, that is all together curious.

When you're up here on top of the mountain, you could go skiing, you could go snowboarding, you could sit around and drink hot cocoa, or you could build an igloo.

Hello Kuhtai!

- Hello!

- Joanna and Mark are two Austrian locals who will teach you how to build an igloo.

Yes, really, How do we begin?

- So we're gonna put this, this is the measure for the middle, that's our center of the igloo.

- Yep.

- And this is a radius of 75 centimeters.

- I love all the math in it.

It's serious stuff.

- It's physics.

- Right, right, right, right.

Step two, play a little ring around the rosy.

And probably children are coming by going, "What are those grownups doing?"

- Yeah.

- Step three.

Now that we have our flat-ish base, it's time to lay down the blocks of the igloo, but where are those blocks again?

Oh yeah.

We have to cut them.

Don't need a gym membership to do this.

But the workout is just beginning, because now we have to carry our new snow blocks and build our igloo.

Oh yeah.

Cool.

Aw.

- It's like a baby, so you gotta be careful.

- Exactly.

Pressure.

Don't break the baby.

As we stack our snow blocks in a circle, you can see the size that our igloo will soon be.

Hmm, but it's not quite big enough for a nap, so... Oh, yeah.

There are some life-sized igloos here at the Iglu-Dorf Hotel.

Much better for nap time.

Oh, yes.

You can definitely rest comfortably in here, with a giant, mountain sheep guarding over you and there's even a charging station for your smartphone, and then there are even more ice carvings of nature and curious creatures, even a restaurant and a lounge, all part of an igloo village hotel.

This is like a Disney movie.

And in case you're worried about being chilly, sleeping in an igloo all night, don't be.

Your natural body heat and the blankets are all you need.

Plus how could anyone worry with this guy keeping watch all night?

Next, once upon a time, a few centuries ago, a certain emperor decided that he'd like to stay a night or two here in Kuhtai as well, but sleeping in an igloo wasn't exactly his style.

In 1497, Emperor Maximillian I, decided he needed a vacation home where he could get away from it all, so he chose picture perfect Kuhtai.

And here's the best part, today Jagdschloss is one of the oldest and most historic ski resorts in all of Tyrol.

It is amazing to experience the history of this Alpine treasure.

And to show us around is the resorts director Vinzenz Triendl.

- In 1622 until 1628, they was building this house here, before it was nothing.

And even they didn't have a road to come here.

Just by horses was coming here and go back.

And it was just for the monarchy, not for anything else.

- No one else.

It must have been hard building it on a slope like this.

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Christine] And this room is part of that original design.

- We have a special place here where they heated the room.

- They did the heating right here.

- They put the stone out in the fire and made it warm, and then they put it back here to make a little bit of a warm atmosphere in this room here.

- Fortunately, there are many rooms in this country castle that are just the same as they were in the 17th century.

Like this room, a very special room because in the 19th century, this was Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Sisi's bedroom.

Talk about this key.

Is that one of the original ones?

- Yeah, yeah.

- It really is?

Wow.

- If we go in, you can see it.

It's really great.

- Okay.

- And we have just one of these, so we don't have any other key.

- We better not lose it.

And so this is how it was in the 1600s?

- 1600s, yes.

- Wow.

- And all of this still works.

I'll let you take the key up.

- [Vinzenz] It's beautiful if you have a look here.

- That's fantastic.

- We handmade all this traditional.

This is really great.

- Oh, that's great.

And so that opens, that's the lock.

- And even here, as you can see on the door.

This is really great, handmade.

- And what I love is not only is it functional, but they took the time to make the little patterns.

Oh, I see a little face now.

- Yeah.

- [Christine] Yeah, look at that.

That's so great.

- [Vinzenz] It's really great.

If you see the flowers, typical from the mountains here.

And so this is beautifully handmade.

If you look around, how much work it is to make this.

- [Christine] So much detail.

And the details of this century's old treasure are incredible.

Over on the other side, it's the double-headed eagle of Austria.

- [Vinzenz] For Tyrol, you see the center, the red one.

This is typical for Tyrol here, and even this is original from this time.

- I'm telling you this is like a museum.

- Yeah.

- It really is.

I keep saying I shouldn't touch anything.

You said, "No, it's fine.

It's fine."

- [Vinzenz] If you a little bit like the history, then it must be great here.

- It's fantastic.

(gentle music) Next we dry off our snow gear and stroll through the Alps on foot to explore some of the many darling, small villages of Tyrol.

So we go from igloos to Igls.

This is a quintessential Tyrol village.

It is called Igls and its history goes back to ancient times.

Now the origin of its name is a bit of a mystery, but some say it could possibly come from an 11th century monastery that was in the area.

What we do know is that its modern history began in the 19th century when the well-to-do would vacation here.

And luckily for us, some of those 19th century farmhouses, hotels and taverns are still here today.

One of the loveliest buildings in Igls is the parish church of St. Giles.

It dates back to the early Middle Ages, but most of what you see now was built around 1700 in this beautiful Baroque style, and with that lovely yellow and white motif that you see all around Tyrol.

Now the cross that you see on top of the church is pretty traditional, right?

But other crosses around Igls, no disrespect are a little bit corny.

All throughout the village of Igls, you will see something quite curious, corn hanging on the outside of the buildings.

And on this particular farmhouse, a whole lot of corn in the shape of a cross.

This goes back many centuries to the agrarian roots of the village, when farmers and townsfolk would hang this corn as a thank you to God for a bountiful harvest.

It's not just the corn that's curious here.

This farmhouse is more than 400 years old, but today it is something quite different, so let's go inside and warm up.

This is Gilda and this is her shop called Kunstwerkstall, which simply means "Art workshop."

She and her husband, Carl, carry on the long tradition of craft making in the Tyrolean Alps, using what nature provides here in the mountains surrounding their shop.

- This is a typical tree only growing up in the mountains above a thousand meters.

- Okay.

- And it's growing very slow.

- And it smells good too.

- It smells good.

- It does smell good.

And tell me the name of the tree again.

- This is silver.

- Silver?

- Silver.

(both laugh) - This brings us to another Tyrolean tradition.

Centuries ago when beer and wine had to be imported from far, far away, it was much more economical for locals to just distill schnapps from what was available in the mountains.

So yes, you guessed it, they drink pine trees around here.

Actually it comes from the pine cone.

Oh, that makes more sense.

- We pick it from the tree and then cut it in the middle.

And put it in the schnapps, and so it becomes this color.

- That's amazing.

- And it's very good for the stomach after dinner, for example.

And it's healthy.

- Of course it's healthy.

It's from a tree.

It's from a tree.

- Yeah.

(bright music) - Just a few steps away from the Kunstwerkstall, is a wonderful historic marker of Igls' 19th century heyday, when the upper class would apres ski here.

This historic marker was built in 1889, and the road that leads here is still the same, except now it's a paved road instead of a dirt road and cars whiz by, instead of the clip-clop of horses.

(hooves pounding) In the heart of Igls of course, is its famous Sporthotel, which is the perfect example of the type of architecture you will see all throughout Tyrol, where it looks a little bit like a Swiss chalet, but also has some Bavarian touches, Italian touches, and wouldn't you know it, some curious touches as well.

The chalet style developed here in the Alps with those roofs that jut out to protect the balconies and front doors below from that ever present snow, and always with those fairytalesque wooden carvings and designs adorning the eaves and balconies.

The interior of the Sporthotel has undergone some beautiful makeovers over the years, but there are some wonderful bits of the original building still to be discovered here.

And today, especially if you are more apres ski than ski, you can taste the Tyrolean history at their restaurant.

It really looks like a Hansel and Gretel house, doesn't it?

Many of these dishes are the same as what the original vacationers would've enjoyed back in 1889.

Some of the best Tyrolean cuisine that you can try, or maybe some dishes you've heard of, and maybe some that you haven't.

This one you may have heard of, it's weiner schnitzel served with potatoes.

And my friend is having... - A fritatten suppe.

- [Christine] And what is that?

- Oh, it's soup with sliced pancakes, not sweet pancakes and I love it as a starter, especially in wintertime when it's cold outside snowing.

It keeps you warm.

- Perfect, perfect.

And this one I know.

This is a dessert it's called kaiserschmarrn.

Did I get that right?

- Yeah.

- And what goes on top of it?

What's that called?

- Oh, no Englishman can pronounce it, spetzkanrusta.

- Spetzkanrusta.

And it's a jam, a fruit?

- It's a jam.

Yes.

Plums with cinnamon and sugar and it tastes delicious.

- Perfect.

And my favorite part is kaiserschmarrn translates to "Imperial mess," because there's a wonderful legend that says Emperor Franz Joseph really loved it.

And I know I do too.

Okay to have dessert first?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Now that we're all fueled up, were onto another darling village named Lans.

Lans has a population of about a thousand people and it is known as a health and recreation retreat.

It dates back to at least the 12th century when it was a stop on the old Salt Road trading route that once ran through Austria.

And Lans is the perfect spot to explore some curious Tyrolean traditions.

Notice anything unique?

Things are a little inside out around here, with the paintings on the outside of the buildings.

These lovely little murals are part of the Luftlmalerei tradition, found across Austria, Italy, and Germany.

Often these Baroque style frescoes are of the local patron saints, who stand guard outside the family home.

But there is another figure here in Lans and he is certainly no saint, in fact, he's a wild man.

There once was a Roman road that crossed through Lans and anyone who dared to travel it heard the legend of a ferocious wild man, who supposedly lived here in the mountains.

That is why today you will see these wonderful little drawings and paintings of the Wilder Mann all around town.

But today there is something not so scary to commemorate the home of the Wilder Mann, it is the Wilden Mann Inn and Restaurant.

Who or what in the world is the Wilder Mann?

Well, he, or it, is an old pagan legend, a half man, half beast Sasquatch fellow.

He is often a symbol of the cycles of life or the cycles of nature, and sometimes he's just downright freaky.

(man grunts) And curiously the Wilder Mann is also a part of this children's parade.

These local Lans children are celebrating the Catholic carnival or pre-lent celebrations, the toned down version of Mardi Gras.

Here in Austria, this is called fasching, which marks the beginning of spring.

The kids get all dressed up and drive away the evil spirits with the crack of a whip.

And with that, the Wilder Mann protects the village and ushers in the spring season once again.

Next, let's explore a Tyrolean tradition that doesn't include any evil spirits, just some really wonderful music, dancing, a bit of yodeling and some shoe slapping.

(bright music) This is the Schuplattler, a traditional Tyrolean and Bavarian folk dance.

"Schu," translates to shoe.

And "Platt," translates to flat, because the dancers slap their shoes with their hands held flat.

This may seem like plain old fun, but of course the Schuplattler has a curious history.

It is believed that it began in the Middle Ages as a dating ritual of sorts where young men would dance, clap and shoe slap their little hearts out.

(man yells) (audience applauds) (bright music) (people singing in foreign language) Next to join the show, you gotta dress the part, right?

So we head to Tiroler Heimatwerk in Innsbruck to learn about the traditional Tyrolean dress, the tracht, which is a fancier folk dress for holidays and special occasions and the dirndl, which was the working woman's dress.

In fact, the word "Dirndl," comes from the phrase "Maid's dress," and the different patterns and colors on the dresses signified which region a frau or fraulein came from.

So I know it's from Tyrol, but you said it's specifically which region?

- This is Wipptal.

- Wipptal?

- Yeah, this goes to the south road, to Italy.

- Oh, okay.

- This goes to the South.

- Excellent.

- So that particular region would always have a black skirt red, with green.

- Mostly.

Mostly the skirt is black.

- [Christine] There are many different forms of the Tyrolean dress, but the basics are this, a white blouse called a hemdl, a laced bodice called a mieder, a skirt called a kittel and an apron called a schurz.

But unlike our overstuffed closets of today with fashions coming and going, these dresses were truly one of a kind.

- It's a lifetime dress.

So they wear it for their whole life and normally keep it in their families and give them to a daughter or even a granddaughter.

- Oh, that's nice.

- Yes, so they're real traditional clothes.

- Okay.

My turn.

What to wear?

What to wear?

Ta da!

What do you think?

Do I fit in now?

- [Barbara] Perfect.

- Why do I suddenly feel like yodeling?

(man yodels) So from a chapel way up high, with a view of the valleys down below, which cradles Alpine villages and towns straight out of a fairytale, to mountain peaks that provide the snowiest, loveliest playground for skiers and apres skiers alike, onto an even chillier experience where you stomp, chop, lift and build the coolest little hideaway, which is just a snowball's throw away from the warm and historic chalet that was good enough for royalty.

And then there's the village where the corn is spiritual and the pine is tasty and the place you rest and dine is steeped in Tyrolean tradition.

Okay to have dessert first?

- Yep.

- Okay.

Onto another tiny mountaintop village, where a not so tiny creature once roamed, or maybe he still does.

(whips crack) And then finally back down the mountains to don a dirndl and do some serious Schuplattening.

Tyrol has so much to be curious about.

Danke 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 Tyrol.

As the Tyroleans say... (Christine speaking in foreign language) - [Cameraman] All right, I'm filming.

David looks like a monkey, coming to me.

David made it.

(people laughing) - [David] You're gonna create a snowball.

- We made our own SPURart.

- [Cameraman] Yeah, that's my SPURart.

- Thank you for joining us.

(people laughing) On our educated and sophisticated... - [Christine] "Curious Traveler," is made possible by the following.

- [Announcer] At Regent Seven Seas Cruises, we believe that personal space is essential to the luxury travel experience.

With no more than 732 guests, our ships allow you to explore the world and discover the freedom of having space at sea.

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.

Windstar Cruises, intimate, private yacht-style cruises to the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Tahiti, and more.

We look forward to seeing you on board.

Windstarcruises.com.

When you travel with us, you are not the typical tourist.

- [Christine] And closed captioning provided by TAP Air Portugal.

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