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

Two one-minute flights in a vertical wind tunnel after a short briefing, no jump or plane needed; the Riesenrad is a short walk away.

The 1897 ferris wheel after the flight, a slow turn in a wooden cabin to see where you have been and the Danube you will swim in.

A pork knuckle carved at the table and a Budvar from the tap in the chestnut beer garden, open March to October; the first recovery meal.

A flat dawn run along the canal towpath from Schwedenplatz to the Prater bridges and back, graffiti walls and rowing eights for company.

Hire a paddleboard or a dinghy on the old Danube arm, two hours on warm still water with the Donauturm above; a swim from the board counts.

The Schnitzel that overhangs the plate, pounded thin since 1905, with potato salad and a Grüner; book, or stand in the queue with the rest.

Ninety minutes by train and bus, then Austria's first cable car to the Rax plateau at 1,500 metres; a four-hour loop to the Ottohaus and back on the ridge.

Europe's largest underground lake in a gypsum mine, crossed by boat in a helmet, on the way back through the Vienna Woods.

Tafelspitz in its copper pot, the broth first and the beef after with apple horseradish; the dish Franz Joseph ate daily, earned by a mountain.

The park opens at half past six: a run up the zigzag to the Gloriette and back along the Neptune fountain before the coaches arrive.

An aquarium in a wartime flak tower, sharks and a crocodile hall inside and a terrace on the roof eleven floors up; take the stairs.

A Käsekrainer with sweet mustard and a Pfiff of beer at the stand behind the opera, eaten standing before the airport train.