Berlin for The Thrill Seekers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Berlin's big climbing hall, 1,500 square metres of routes in an old factory; rent shoes, warm up, and leave the jet lag on the wall.

A barge-pool moored in the Spree, open late in summer; swim with the river at eye level and the Oberbaumbrücke downstream.

A burger counter in a former public toilet beneath the elevated railway, queue included; eat on the kerb as the trains pass.

A six-kilometre loop on the two runways at sunrise, skaters and kite-buggies for company and nothing taller than a hangar in the way.

Hire a kayak and paddle the Landwehrkanal to the Spree and back under the plane trees; two hours is enough to earn lunch.

An Austrian kitchen in Kreuzberg, a Schnitzel the size of the plate and a cold Zweigelt; the recovery meal the day demands.

Forty minutes north by regional train, then the eight-kilometre path around a clear glacial lake; swim out to the island before the picnickers arrive.

A high-ropes course strung over a former border strip, nine levels up to the beam walk; three hours of harness time in the middle of town.

Alpine cooking in a white-tiled room, Kaiserschmarrn to finish; the kind of carbohydrates a day of ropes and lake water justifies.

A flat riverside run along the Spree past the Soviet war memorial, the Insel der Jugend and the Plänterwald woods, before the office cyclists.

The lift to 203 metres at opening, the sphere still empty; count the lakes you swam and the runways you ran from above.

Currywurst with fries at the stand-up counter on Mehringdamm, eaten in five minutes before the airport train from Platz der Luftbrücke.