Aliens and more: HR Giger Café

All this talk about the United States declassifying unidentified flying object files reminds me of a recent trip to the HR Giger Museum and Café, whose futuristic alien theme strongly contrasts with its location in La Gruyère, one of the best-preserved medieval communities in Switzerland.

Yes, amid all these medieval attractions inside the 13th-century sprawling castle complex of Château de Gruyères, the HR Giger Museum and Café stands out for its interiors, which resemble the inside of an alien ship.

Alien skulls line the café’s walls. More skulls and bones are sculpted into the chandeliers. Arches curve like giant alien spinal columns. Even the chairs and tables where guests sit are intricately carved with alien symbols and body parts — it’s like the Capuchin Crypt in Rome, where the bones and skulls of monks were transformed into chandeliers and wall decorations, but in an alien edition.

Of course, all those alien effects at the HR Giger Museum and Café are not real, unlike those in the Capuchin Crypt in Rome. The alien artworks are by celebrated Swiss artist Hans Ruedi “HR” Giger, best known as the designer of the monsters and aesthetics of the hit Hollywood film series Alien. His art style has been dubbed “biomechanical,” blending machines with human physiques.

While the café serves only typical sodas, coffee, alcoholic drinks and pastries, it is worth spending some time there for refreshments while admiring the cool interiors and taking a break from all the walking around the car-free castle grounds.

Empress eats

More than her glamour, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as “Sisi,” whose early life is celebrated in the Netflix German historical drama The Empress (Die Kaiserin), is known for her grit and growth as an independent woman.

While queens and princesses of her time were confined to castles and not allowed to do things that only men usually did, Sisi showed her grit by wearing boots, riding horses and traveling often to see the world as it really was. Part of that grit and independence was eating what she liked, not only what her court told her to consume.

Just outside the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, the winter residence where Sisi used to live, is the flagship store of Demel, the empress’ favorite café that invented her favorite treat — candied violets, or violet petals coated in sugar. Although sugary food causes diabetes and obesity, Sisi actually ate candied violets as part of a “diet plan.” She sometimes skipped full meals and ate only the candies to strictly maintain her 20-inch waist.

Much like the Ladurée cafés in France inspired by another allegedly “spoiled” queen, Marie Antoinette, Demel boasts elegant “princess” interiors, cakes, confectionery and coffee. The café is so popular that long queues extend several blocks outside for its freshly baked strudels.

‘Sleeping Beauty’ castle dining

In Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, we see how Aurora and her prince show their grit and growth in fighting the evil queen who put the princess under her spell. The castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty in the film is Neuschwanstein Castle, located in Bavaria, Germany.

Commissioned by King Ludwig II in 1869 as a private getaway, the 19th-century “fairytale” castle boasts Romanesque Revival architecture in a dramatic Alpine setting. At the end of the tour through the castle’s grand halls and rooms lies a café that serves some of the best authentic German sausages and strudels in the region.

Just outside the café is a veranda with a spectacular view of the mountains — the very view that cast a spell on a real king, prompting him to defy the odds by building a castle on a rocky cliff.