In a way, the whole city of Graz served as checkpoint - there was even the possibility of travelling out to the nearby Arnold Schwarzenegger museum. As one of the late arrivals, I could benefit from the experiences of other racers, and one attraction in particular caught my eye: the world’s largest indoor slide. Dropping 64m (via 175m of spiralled tube) from the top of the Schlossberg, this 33 second thrill will set you back a mere 6 euros and is open until 9pm.


This seemed a lot more reasonable - both in thrills and bills - than the dam bungee, so I decided to give it a go without too much further research. Although an elevator can take you from street level straight to the slide mouth for a couple more euros, I took a more leisurely route via the funicular, arriving at the hilltop just in time to admire the sunset over the city.


Well. All this slow travel may have distorted my perception of time. But it turns out you can fit a lot of thoughts into 33 seconds. Specifically, you can question certain very recent life choices. And wonder at length if a 40 year old is really meant to move at 25km/h in a glorified potato sack. It was fun. But I couldn’t quite stand up afterwards.


(Obviously I was intrigued by the tallest indoor slide qualifier. Turns out there’s only one taller / longer tunnel slide in the world, which is located in… Stratford, London. It’s been there for 12 years and at no point have I considered riding it. Funny how travel broadens the mind.)


The rest of my evening was spent more sedately. Graz has a good evening buzz about it, and I spent some time people-watching whilst listening to a string triplet. Cyclists bounced over cobbles; joggers tried to beat the heat by getting their mileage in after sundown; a steady stream of ice cream eaters seemed to have the better strategy. Traffic was non-existent save for rumbling trams, and there was a happy background hum from the bars and sausage stands of the main square. I was glad, once again, that this event had lead me here; and that I found the time to enjoy it.