Daily Pampering: Visit “the pharmacy of the holy trinity”

by Annie Scott on


Saint Charles Apotheke is a small Viennese empire producing all-natural, locally grown products specifically designed to make you look and feel better. Alfred Blumenthal founded the original pharmacy in 1886, and it has lived in Vienna, Austria’s 6th district since the early 20th century. For a long time and for reasons forgotten, it was known as “the pharmacy of the holy trinity.”

Since its early days, the pharmacy has expanded from the above Apotheke location, filled with herbs with fun-to-recognize names like “lavendel” and “kamille” and potions and elixirs, to include a Cosmothecary across the street with facial creams and body serums, as well as a calming spa treatment room for massages, facials and whatever else you’d like to experience in an all-natural, eco-conscious, uniquely Austrian way. Their Saint Charles label consists of products sourced from their own Austrian “refugium,” where everything is grown and concocted into health-improving tonics and elixirs according to extensive research in traditional European medicine and, most recently, phytotherapy. You can walk in, tell them how you’re feeling and get a full prescription of helpful remedies from digestive teas and skin-improving lotions to aphrodisiac “love potions.”

Furthermore, they have opened a small restaurant next to the Cosmothecary called the Alimentary, known as “Austria’s first pharmacy restaurant.” There, you can eat or take home locally grown foods designed to respect the environment and make you healthier. They even offer cooking classes.

To visit the pharmacy of the holy trinity, check out their Saint Charles Apotheke website here, and get yourself to Vienna. You can shop online here if you’d rather get the Austrian experience at home.

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My visit to Vienna was sponsored by the Vienna Tourist Board and Cool Capitals, but the opinions expressed in the article are 100% my own.

Hercules at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna

by Annie Scott on

The legend of Hercules is a favorite of many – including, apparently, the Habsburgs. The southern entrance of Hofburg Palace in Vienna (pictured from the inside) is flanked with a series of totally awesome statues known as “The Labors of Hercules” by Lorenzo Matielli.

There are many fables about Hercules, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena, and many of the tallest tales come from his Twelve Labors.

Hera, Zeus’ wife, was none too fond of her husband’s mortal mistress’ son. One of her attempts to ruin his life was to make him temporarily insane so that he killed his own wife and children. Naturally, he was devastated when he came back to his senses, and he prayed to Apollo for guidance. Apollo told him his punishment should be to serve Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae for twelve years. Eurystheus sent him on twelve quests, including battling a hydra, cerberus, The Cretan Bull and others, which he accomplished with the help of Hermes and Athena. Click here for more info on each of those quests.

The coolest story, if you ask me, is not a labor, but how he died: a tricksy centaur tried to rape Hercules’ wife Deianeira, and Hercules shot him with a poison arrow. The centaur, while dying, told Deianeira to keep a vial of his blood, stating that if she ever thought Hercules was being unfaithful, it would restore his love. As fate would have it, she did eventually think he was being unfaithful, so she smeared some of the blood on a shirt and sent it to him. The blood was poisoned (the same poison from the arrow which killed the centaur) and when Hercules donned the shirt, it caused him so much pain he made his friends burn him alive. Whoa.

Moral: never trust a centaur who says his blood is a love potion. Now, enjoy the muscular, manly, glorious sculptures from the Hofburg Palace.
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My visit to Vienna was sponsored by the Vienna Tourist Board and Cool Capitals, but the opinions expressed in the article are 100% my own.

10 things you didn’t expect the Viennese to make out of marzipan

by Annie Scott on


I don’t like marzipan. Even before I developed a nut allergy (marzipan is made of sugar and almond meal), I thought it tasted rather bland. It’s not really sweet, not really nutty, and well, not really good, if you ask me.

All the same, if you make a bunch of random stuff out of marzipan for absolutely no discernible reason beyond the sheer joy of making marzipan porcupines and cheeseburgers (for example), you have my full attention.

Marzipan is a well-known art in Vienna, where you’re most likely to find a Marzipan Mozart (or Schubert, Wagner, whomever you’d most like to eat). The legendary Demel cafe has a Marzipan Museum, and the windows of many of the city’s fine confectioners are decked with large marzipan sculptural goodies which look so wrong, but so right to eat.

Marzipan probably originated in the Middle East or China (nobody’s sure), but Vienna seems to have it mastered. Check out these photos from City Confiserie — and careful, the last one is NSFW:
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My visit to Vienna was sponsored by the Vienna Tourist Board and Cool Capitals, but the opinions expressed in the article are 100% my own.

Daily Pampering: Carriage rides in Vienna

by Annie Scott on


When you find yourself in Vienna, surrounded by palatial architecture and the echoes of history’s most brilliant classical musicians at every turn, a kind of nostalgia sets in. This is an excellent time to take a ride in a horse-drawn carriage.

When Cinderella’s fairy godmother came to visit, one of the most important things she did was turn a pumpkin into a horse-drawn carriage. In Vienna, horse-drawn carriages are called “fiacres” (or “fiakers“), named for Saint Fiacre, “patron saint of taxi drivers.” Yes, he’s also the patron saint of gardening, but Hotel de Saint Fiacre in Paris used to rent carriages, and the moniker ostensibly originated there.

The drivers of Vienna fiacres are usually part of family-run companies, so they are competitors and it’s a good idea to tip. You can haggle a price outside St Stephen’s Cathedral for a large or small tour of the city (that terminology will help) for as little as 20 euros. If you’re looking to make a special night fancier, though, opt for an enclosed carriage; the kind with doors and a little more privacy. The prices are usually about the same (unless you’re a professional barterer, in which case … good for you) — just ask your concierge how much it will cost and they can make arrangements for you.

From then on, you may refer to your concierge as “my fairy godmother,” but it may be frowned upon. Check your local hotels to ask if there are fiacre services in your area.

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

My visit to Vienna was sponsored by the Vienna Tourist Board, but the opinions expressed in the article are 100% my own.

Swinging new art exhibit comes to Vienna Museum

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you want to see one of Gustav Klimt’s pieces, you’ll need to cross through a world that may make you uncomfortable … and you’ll probably need partner. Haven’t figured it out yet? The Secession, a contemporary art museum in downtown Vienna, has plopped a swingers club between the museum and the Klimt – part of a project by Christoph Buechel, an artist from Switzerland. During the day, you’ll find mattresses, a bar and a whirlpool, as well as photos to make you blush. At night, of course, it becomes Element6, and anything between two among as many partners as you can assemble goes.

The project, which runs until April 18, 2010, is intended to recall the controversial “Beethoven” Frieze by Klimt that was exhibited first in 1902. Though it’s now thought to be one of Klimt’s most important pieces, it was originally considered to be pornographic (I guess the Austrians didn’t “know it when they saw it” back then). This time around, the Austrians aren’t offended. The right-wingers aren’t crazy about it, but the general public doesn’t seem disturbed. Gerald Adler, of the Kent School of Architecture in Britain, tells The Associated Press, “He’s putting it in a place that’s an accepted venue for avant-garde art, so it loses its effect.”