Vacation Camp "Basalt"

After not getting into the abandoned iron works but instead finding the Highway Hotel, we drove on to explore our first "planned" spot of the day.
It was an old vacation camp, a spot that I had found during planning, but I wasn't able to find out anything about the history of it.
What was clear was that we were going to have to take a little walk through the forest to get there.
We parked the car at a turning area near the forest entrance and we started our walk.
The path was not declared as private, so we didn't expect any trouble. After about twenty minutes, we met a lady with two dogs. One of the dogs ran straight toward us and got us all dirty with the mud he was playing in. We had a nice short talk with the lady, and she asked us where we were headed. We told her that we were just wandering around. She told us that the path ends after a while and that we couldn't go any further from there. We just told her that that's the place we were looking for. She looked a bit puzzled, and we politely said goodbye and went on our way.
After a while we arrived at a fence with a "private property" sign on it. There was a huge hole in that fence, so we accepted the invitation and went in.
The visit didn't enlighten us in any way regarding the history except that it added the possibility of a military use, but nothing concrete came up.
As expected, the camp had obviously suffered many teenagers from the area having parties there, and there weren't too many good shots to take, but all in all, we had a nice afternoon walk through the forest.


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The Highway Hotel

This spot came to us a surprise and became the unplanned second spot on our summer vacation last year. Originally, we had planned to visit the remains of an old ironworks somewhere in the Harz mountains. We knew the address, but when we got there, there were people walking around the place. Upon asking one of them if we could take some photos, he denied us permission and we had to leave.
Across the street was the ironworks' former administration building, which also looked pretty interesting, but there was no way to gain access. It didn't look like it was going to be a successful exploration...
Back at the car, we were smoking a cigarette and looking at the map where to go next when I looked to the right and saw that we had parked right in front of something abandoned. I quickly checked the place out and walked through the bushes around the walls and found an open window right away.
I went back to the car, we had a quick tactical meeting and then we hopped in.
As we walked through the rooms and hallways, it became obsious that this was an old hotel. Some of the things I saw seemed oddly familiar and after a couple of minutes it became clear that this was a place that I had seen on photos before and that I'd always wanted to visit, but never had found out where it was.
This was one of the moments that show me again and again what is really great about urban exploring: finding the places yourself, going through the world with open eyes and discovering the past that's hiding behind every corner...


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Therapy School "Bone Breaker"

In the middle of August of last year, my wife and I started our summer vacation.  We had planned a week of exploring in the Harz region of Germany. And a successful week it was going to be :)
Our first stop was a pretty well-known spot - an old school for physiotherapy. It lies in the middle of a residential area and I had heard all sorts of stories about security services, angry neighbors and police coming by, but we decided to give it a try anyway.
After driving around for a long time looking for a good parking place, we finally found one that wasn't too far away but also far enough not to attract any attention.
We unpacked our gear and walked up the hill to our target. We had no idea what was waiting for us in terms of accessibility and danger of being discovered.
It was all much easier than we had anticipated. After a really short walk around the building, we found an open door at ground level and just walked in, unnoticed by the neighbors.
Surprisingly enough, in spite of the notoriety of this place, the condition was still pretty good - and we were the only ones there, which made the atmosphere even better.


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Special Care Clinic F.

At first, I couldn't believe it when I found out that this place has been abandoned for more than 13 years, it was in such an amazing shape.
I guess that the really remote location did its part in keeping this spot relatively secret for so long.
It's really sad, because from what I've heard, a lot of stuff has been stolen in the past couple of months after more and more photos appeared on the web...
But from the top.
After we had finished checking out the old train, our friend Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland took us to  a spot that he had discovered but not explored yet. So it was a completely unknown spot. After driving a while on some back roads, we finally got to the tiny village where this clinic was supposed to be. And there it was - sitting right across the neighbor's house.
We drove straight onto the former clinic's parking spot which was hidden behind a line of trees and bushes, so we were out of sight.
After a short strategy meeting we decided to stick with our successful method of "just going in" and walked straight towards the building, climbed over a fence and checked for a way in. It was quickly found and we were in...
Except for a terrible stench in the pool area and fire extinguishers emptied all over the place, it was mostly untouched. A really amazing place, though it could have had a little more decay if you ask me.
After a bout two and a half hours, we left...but I was going to return...


To find out more about the history of this li'l ol' place and to check out all the photos from this spot, click the button below.

The Last Train from Denmark

Late in July of last year, our friend Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland took my wife and me for a short tour through the North of Germany.
Our first stop were a couple of old railway cars that I had noticed a bunch of times from the train going through a small town, but this was the first chance I had to check them out frome up close.
There was a public parking lot really close by and the area wasn't really off limits, so we just walked up to the old train. The first cars we passed were freight cars, but a few meters further, we reached the passenger cars.
Considering the long time that they had been standing there, they were still in a remarkable condition.

There were a lot of details to be seen - especially when we found the wagon full of railway memorabilia.
We went through the train for the entire length before we went back to the car to head for the next location.
From what I've heard (and seen from other urbexer's photos), the trains's windows have since been boarded up and most of the doors have been sealed.


To find out more about the history of this li'l ol' place and to check out all the photos from this spot, click the button below.