Private Drive: Trip to Mauthausen and Linz from Vienna

What your day looks like

Mauthausen The last camp to be liberated in 1945, Mauthausen was a 'Grade 3' camp, tasked with the extermination through labor of Germany's political and ideological enemies, both real and imagined. Amongst Nazi officials it was referred to by the nickname 'The Bone Grinder' and inmates were forced to perform heavy manual labor in inhumane conditions. Thousands lost their lives. Mauthausen and its surrounding sub-camps now operate as a museum and memorial to the victims of these heinous crimes, ensuring that their ordeal will not be forgotten. Over 100 original objects are displayed in the museum as well as some 30 video and audio eye-witness testimonies from camp survivors and people who lived in the vicinity of the camp. An important and moving tribute to the brutality and persecution of Hitler's regime, Mauthausen deserves to be recognized alongside the more widely visited camps such as Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Belzec. Linz Primarily a Danubian transport and administrative center since ancient times the city has embraced new technologies to startling effect and become a member of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network as a city of media arts. In a few other central European cities does the past sit so well with the contemporary. To get a sense of the past climb the Postlingberg hill to the 18th Century Pilgrimage Church, enjoying the views of the city and the Danube as you go. Down on the south side of the river itself the dazzling glass oval of the Brucknerhouse, built to commemorate Linzian composer Anton Bruckner, is an admirable piece of modern architecture. But just a couple of hundred meters away from the Lentos Art Museum, an ultra-modernist but ineffably stylish building, glowing a hot summer-sky-blue, pink, red, or violet at night, houses a huge and absorbing collection of modernist painting, sculpture and object art. *Optional third party activities such as tours or attraction fees are not included in the price. We can’t guarantee that every attraction will be open for your trip, so we recommend checking the opening hours in advance. *Please note that this experience includes a private driver but it does not include a guide and is not a guided tour.