The northern Austrian city of Linz is just 2 miles south of the Czech border. It's a communications hub, offering tourist and freight shipping on the River Danube and being part of the European rail network. If you hire a car in Linz you'll soon find it is connected to many of the region's main trunk roads too. On the A1 motorway, Salzburg is 8 miles west, Vienna is 12 miles to the east, meanwhile Linz International Airport is about eight miles southwest of the city. Attractions of the area include the 18th-century Wilhering Abbey, Postlingberg botanical garden and the sobering site of Mauthausen Concentration Camp.
Linz provides a mix of modern industry and historic city. If you hire a car here you'll find old buildings and monuments dotted all over the city. The main square is the best place to start, with sites like the old pigeon market and plague column. There's an ancient Imperial castle, an early medieval church and the grand gothic Catholic cathedral. At the top of the Pöstlingberg Hill overlooking the city is an old pilgrims' church while down by the river you'll find the modern Brucknerhaus concert hall, Lentos Art Museum and Ars Electronica Centre celebrating new media arts.
