I managed to relax into the pain, and by the time she got to my knotted shoulders, it felt like she'd grown an extra set of fingers. I didn't realize you were trying to warn me. Later, while he blissed out in the steam and sauna rooms, I took a semiprivate 90-minute hatha yoga class from a wonderful teacher. Accompanied as I was by the sounds of a Tibetan gong CD, a clock's tick-tock and bird song outside the window, the only block on my road toward nirvana was the snoring of my sole classmate. We tried the Finnish sauna, which is dry, and the Irish bath with its damp, hot air.
Damp air is heated, then infused with aromatics at five-minute intervals.
During our stay the scent of the week was a heavenly, head-clearing blend of wild mountain herbs. And the food Our relaxing routine was interrupted only for the taking of meals. While many of the hotel guests followed the European custom of having the main meal at midday, we lunched lightly at beer gardens in town. Opened by a Parisian in 1838, the casino is worth a look, even if you don't gamble, just for the opulence of its various salons. At one end of Lichtentaler Allee is a restored house where Johannes Brahms lived.