Tour Report: Hotel "House L."

The second place we visited on our “interim tour” to bridge the time until our summer vacation in 2020 was the remains of a small hotel. Right next door was another hotel that I had visited a few years earlier, but it was in such a desolate condition that it was hardly worth taking photos. So we concentrated on the small hotel next door.

The site was open and not fenced off; we just had to fight our way through some undergrowth to get to the buildings.

The buildings were in terrible condition.  There was hardly any furniture left, there was a lot of graffiti and trash in the outdoor areas, and most of the windows and doors were destroyed.

However, there were also a few bright spots: the vegetation was really beautiful to look at, and the “real,” natural decay also provided some beautiful motifs.

The place wasn't very big; there were only two small buildings, so we finished our exploration relatively quickly. Then we went back to the car and headed to the next location.

To check out all the photos from this place, click the button below.

Tour Report: Abandoned Railway M.

Four weeks had passed since our visit to the old carpet factory in June 2020, and there were still about three weeks to go until our summer vacation, for which we already had some exciting places on our list. But we didn't want to wait that long . So we decided to use this Sunday for a little excursion and explore a few smaller locations in the region.

For the start of our little tour, we had chosen an old railroad line that had been officially closed since 1996 and was only partially used for trolley traffic in the 2000s.

We started our hike along the tracks at a former train stop and walked a few hundred meters along the tracks until the vegetation became too dense for us to make our way through the thorn bushes.

Of course, it's not a spectacular location, but for me personally, these nice little things are a very important aspect of the hobby - also because they make me even more involved and engaged with the history of my home region.

The weather was perfect and this place was a good start to our excursion, and after a good half hour we made our way to the next location.

To find out a bit more about the history of the place, click the button below.

Tour Report: The Halls of Carpets [Revisit]

In June 2020, we met up with two very good friends for a little exploring. We thought that it would be nice to pay a revisit to the abandoned carpet factory that we had first explored about a year before. At the time, we hadn't seen everything, because at some point, someone started driving around the premises with a black van, and we didn't know if it was the owner or copper thieves or a security service, so we decided to cut our visit a bit short.

Little did we know that we were going to come across that black van again during our second visit...but one thing at a time.

We met up with our friends Katto and Marco late in the morning. The parking place that we had used the first time was occupied, so we had to look for another one, and we did find one a little farther away, which was okay, because we didn't want to arise an suspicion.

We had first planned to use the access that we had found the first time, but unfortunately that ladder that allowed uns to climb over the wall was gone. So we had to find another way in. Around the side of the premises we found a construction fence through which we could easily enter the site.

From there, we made our way through the huge halls of the once flourishing carpet factory. The architecture had lost none of its appeal for me the second time around, so I really enjoyed this exploration. What's more, we found some areas that had eluded us on our first visit, but which we were able to see at our leisure this time, such as the administration building and the water treatment plant.

As we were examining the latter, the black van suddenly drove up, a door opened and a dog jumped out and ran into the building barking.

Regardless of the situation, it was a funny sight: We had hidden to the side of the hallway to avoid being spotted immediately, and the dog didn't manage to stop due to extremely slippery tiles on the floor. So he then slid on all fours down the corridor into the next room, struggling to stop as he saw us standing right there. It wasn't an aggressive dog, he was just sent in by his owner to scare us.

Of course, we went out, because obviously we had been seen, and we have made it our policy to never run away, but to approach people and be friendly.

The driver of the van was friendly as well. He asked us if we were just taking photos, which we confirmed. He was fine with that and allowed us to go on. He also asked us how we got on the premises and asked us to please close the access when we left.

This situation shows once again that if you are friendly and don't make extra work for people by running away, you usually don't have a negative experience, but on the contrary often even get permission to continue with your exploration.

So we continued our exploration for another hour or so, before we left the place on the same way he had entered it - and of course, we closed the conctruction fence after we left.

To find out a bit more about the history of the place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.