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The only good reason to venture onto the eastern bank of the Danube Canal is to visit the Prater (derived from the Spanish prado ). This large, flat tract of land, taking up almost half of the island formed by the various arms of the Danube, first opened to the public in 1766 by Josef II, includes vast acres of mixed woodland, sports stadiums, racecourses, a miniature railway, allotments, a trade-fair centre, a planetarium, a football museum, an amusement park and, most famously of all, Vienna's giant Ferris wheel, or Riesenrad. In sum, the Prater is vast, and its backbone is the chestnut-lined Hauptallee, which runs dead straight for 5km. By far the busiest section of the Prater is the northwest end, where you'll find the park's permanent funfair, known as the Volksprater (Easter-Oct daily 8am-midnight). Tourists flock here for the Riesenrad, but the Viennese come here for the other rides, a strange mixture ranging from hi-tech helter-skelters and white-knuckle affairs to more traditional fairground rides like ghost trains and dodgems. Taking a ride on the Riesenrad (daily: March & April 10am-10pm; May-Sept 9am-midnight; Oct 10am-10pm; Nov to early Jan 10am-6pm; oS45/?3.27), built in 1898 by the British military engineer Walter Basset, is one of those things you simply have to do if you go to Vienna; it's also a must for fans of the film The Third Man , as the place in front of which Orson Welles does his famous "cuckoo clock" speech. Be prepared for the fact that the wheel doesn't so much spin as stagger slowly round, as each gondola fills up with passengers; once you've done a complete circuit, you've had your twenty-minute ride. The easiest way of approaching the Prater is from the northwest, from Wien-Nord station (U-Bahn Praterstern), the terminus for tram #5 and #O, and a stop on tram #21. Alternatively, tram #N from U-Bahn Schwedenplatz has its terminus right by the Hauptallee, a third of the way down from the Ferris wheel. Getting around the Prater, you can walk, jog, rollerblade, cycle, take a fiacre, or rent one of the pedal carriages, which seat two adults (plus two kids if you wish). Another possibility is to buy a one-way ticket on the miniature railway or Liliputbahn , which will get you almost halfway down the Hauptallee.
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