Travel Info

Airports
Linz has its own airport with excellent and cheap connection to London through Ryan Air. London is generally the cheapest European destination from the U.S. Be warned though that the trip from London Heathrow to London Stanstead is all the way across Greater London. After that everything should be easy, including a local bus service from Linz airport to Linz Volksgartenstraße, the dowtown terminal, every hour on the hour from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. plus an extra "Ryanair shuttle" for the flights from and to London.

Vienna is two and a half hours by train and serviced by all major airlines. You need to catch a bus or subway from the airport to the train station called "Westbahnhof" and go to Linz from there. The online train schedule will also display the bus or subway section of your trip when you type Vienna Airport as your "from" and Linz as your "to". There's no need for a reservation.

Munich is an hour further than Vienna but in most cases a bit cheaper. Follow the green signs to "S" (S-Bahn, Underground) and "Z" (for Zentralbereich, central area). There you'll find a train info and booking station. Buy your ticket to Linz/Austria here. Mention Austria as there is another Linz as well and you could get side-tracked by some 400 miles. Ask the friendly staff to include the S-Bahn in your tickets.

You will arrive
at "Hauptbahnhof" by train or at "Goethekreuzung" by Blue Danube Airport Bus (no kidd'n!).

If you don't mind some 5 to 10 mintues walking, take tram #3 ("Straßenbahn") towards "Bergbahnhof Urfahr" (see note on tickets in "public transportation" below) exit at "Mozartkreuzung", continue in direction of the tram for one long city block, then turn right into "Harrachstrasse". At the end of the building on you left side you see a little pink chapel, continue 100 feet, turn left, see a big grey building with the white O.K sign on it - go there.

If you get lost, don't call 911, call the Institute's mobile at +43 (699) 1169 0277 instead.

Getting around in Linz
By public transportation: Linz has some 30 bus and three street car lines. All street car lines stop at "Taubenmarkt" and "Mozartkreuzung" the two closest stops to the O.K. Centrum. A one way ticket is called MIDI and will cost you € 1.50. A whole day ticket is called MAXI and will set you back € 3.00. You have to buy your ticket at the ticket machine before entering the trolley or bus. One week and one month passes can be bought at tobacco stores, called "Trafik". Public transportation is available from about 4am till midnight. 
 
Taxi: Call (0732) 6969 if dialing from an Austrian cell phone, call 6969 if using a local land line or phone booth. If you can't find a common language or other means of communication with your driver you might resort to Japanese tactics and show them a print out of this driving map. The red dot is O.K. Centrum.

Tickets: Always get your ticket in advance, regardless of the means of transportation you've chosen. Controllers check tickets and fines can be hefty.

Some hints for getting around in Europe
Low-fare airlines: Linz is on the Ryan Air and Niki network. There are dozens of airlines to choose from within Europe. A good starting page referencing many of these is: www.flylc.com. Make sure you select Linz in the list of airports on the left.
Some others are:
FlyBaboo, www.flybaboo.com.
Sterling, www.sterling.dk.
Air Berlin, www.airberlin.com.
RyanAir, www.ryanair.com.
Jet4you, www.jet4you.com.
Wizz Air, www.wizzair.com.
EasyJet, www.easyjet.com
but there are many more.

Rental cars are definitely more expensive than in the U.S. Clarify any additional one-way fees before you book.

The European train system is excellent and offers several low cost network cards. Eurail is a cooperation of 27 European Railway companies and shipping lines offering Rail Passes to non-European residents.
www.eurail.com