Private Drive: Trip to Melk & Mauthausen from Vienna

What your day looks like

Melk This quiet town still retains an imperial air largely due to its Abbey, a former palace, that dominates the small but perfectly-formed town from its rocky bluff. Napoleon strutted his stuff here and the Kaisergang or Emperor's Gallery, a corridor in the Abbey is lined with portraits of the Austrian nobility crushed beneath his heel. The highlight of the Abbey, however, is its baroque church, the controlled chaos of lushly embellished marble and frescoes, simply drenched in gold. But a close second is the Marmorsaal, or Marble banqueting hall, a magnificent baroque riot of marbled pillars lookout for the gold bewigged caryatids! - and frescoed ceiling by Paul Troger which seems to soar upward vertiginously into infinity. A similarly vertiginous effect is experienced on the tightly circular marble convolutions of the Abbey library stairwell, where you can appreciate why Umberto Eco researched his best-selling novel The Name of the Rose here. While the Abbey cannot – shouldn't – be avoided, the town itself is a delightful place to recover from its profusion of historical and architectural wealth. Mauthausen The last camp to be liberated in 1945, Mauthausen was a 'Grade 3' camp, tasked with the extermination through a 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. *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.