Linz
Linz is definitely the underdog among Austrian cities. It receives the smallest number of tourists, and is looked down on, even by fellow Austrians, as both deeply provincial and, at the same time, predominantly industrial.
By whatever means you approach the city, it's impossible to ignore the chemical plants, steelworks and dockyards ranged along the banks of the Danube. However, in the well-preserved and attractive Altstadt you can still see the core of the much smaller, preindustrial provincial town.
Linz may not bowl you over with its beauty, but it's a place that grows on you – and it does have one remarkable museum, the Ars Electronica (pictured), dedicated to the "virtual" arts, that alone justifies a visit here. Finally, as if the city didn't have a big enough PR p
roblem, Linz is also famous for being "Hitler's home town", the place where he spent his "happiest days", and to which he eventually planned to retire.
Linz's main thoroughfare is the kilometre-long Landstrasse, traffic-free for the most part, except for trams, and lined on both sides by shops, cafés and department stores. For such a large city, Linz's Altstadt, at the far northern end of Landstrasse, is remarkably small: Graben and Promenade now lie along the line of the old city walls.
Just about everything of interest on this side of the river lies within easy walking distance of the showpiece main square, Hauptplatz. North of here, on the banks of the Danube, is the city's top art gallery, the Lentos Kunstmuseum, while a short walk across the Nibelungenbrücke to the north bank brings you to Urfahr, once a separate town, now a workaday suburb of Linz. Dominated by the ugly Neues Rathaus by the riverfront, Urfahr in fact boasts two of the finest sights in Linz: the remarkable Ars Electronica Center, and the Pöstlingbergbahn, whose cream-coloured trams will lift you high above the city.