Tour Report: Home of the Rustbucket [DK]

Pretty close to a dirt racing track lies this abandoned farm that we visited together with Pixelcracker and Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland on our tour through Denmark in May of last year. It was the third spot of the tour and although unspectacular from the outside, it turned out to be a pretty neat place.
There was a race going on on the dirt track, so the surrounding roads were all full of parked cars almost right up to the location that we were headed for. So we blended in nicely when we parked right in front of the place.
We had hoped for a little more than just the remains of an old farm, but that's what it was. There weren't even any real remains of the farmhouse, only two ramshackle barns were left, one of them with a collapsed roof. It didn't look too promising...
But the first thing we saw when we entered the larger of the two barns was an old threshing machine. You don't see that everyday, so it was a pretty nice find. There were some other tools and relics to be found in the large barn as well, but the second highlight presented itself in the second barn. There were the remains of an old horse-drawn wagon with beautifully decaying wooden wheels - and an old automobile. It took some time to find out what type of car it was, but after a while, we came to suspect that it is a Chrysler/Talbot Sunbeam built in the late 1970s.
At some point during our explore, two little girls entered the barn, and my wife did her best entertaining them in Danish until we were finished exploring the place so they wouldn't get hurt climbing around in the old barn.
After two rather empty and a bit disappointing spots on that tour, these two barns were a nice find because of the nice decay and the nicely preserved machine we found in there. It was a good sign for the next location, I think...


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Tour Report: "A House on the Way" [DK]

The second spot on our tour through Denmark in May of last year together with Pixelcracker and Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland was a rather unspectacular abandoned house we discovered on the way from the "House Gammel Dansk" to the next location on our list.
It was the typical situation. Someone in the car yells "Wait, that looks abandoned.", and the car comes to a sudden halt with stuff flying from the back to the front.
We quickly found a spot to park and started to walk around the place.
The back door was open, but we were a bit disappointed from what we found. The rooms were mostly empty, and the house itself was no gem, architecturally speaking.
After about fifteen minutes, we got back into the car and left for the next spot.


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Tour Report: House "Gammel Dansk" [DK]

The day after my birthday last year, my wife and I went for a tour through Denmark together with our good friends Pixelcracker and Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland.
We had a couple of spots planned and so we started out pretty early. We met in Flensburg on the parking lot of a mall where Pixelcracker picked us up with his RV.
Thr first spot on our list was a small house just a short drive from the border.
The trash cans in front of the house looked relatively new. This is the case with many abandoned homes in Denmark, but it still makes you move a little more carefully just in case that someone does still live there.

Nobody lived here anymore. The front door was wide open, and someone had obviously looked through the stuff in the rooms.
There wasn't too much decay, so the house obviously hadn't been abandoned for too long, I think. The house itself was small and had only a couple of rooms. Some clothes were still on the hangers, books were lying around and there was a bottle of typical Danish liquor - hence the name of the place.
It was no spectacular explore but a nice and easy spot to warm up for the rest of the day.


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Tour Report: Castle "Crown of the Land"

This more than 400 year-old castle was the third and final spot on my tour in May of last year together with North Urbex, Pixelcracker and Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland. Since the place is pretty well-known as a historical landmark in the area, it was a legal visit. The ruins of the castle are open to the public.
We had put this place on the map for our tour in case we'd have some time left after the first two spots, and that just happened to be the case.
So we drove for about half an hour until we arrived at the castle's ruins.
It was already afternoon and the weather didn't look too good, which is why there were only a few people walking around - good for us and our photography!

I really liked exploring this place - the cloudy sky made for a great atmosphere, and the month of May had created a rich green on the old castle walls.
We had a nice stress-free walk through the ruins, took our photos, and went back to the car.
As soon as we left the premises, the rain started - our timing was perfect!

So, altogether it was a great tour through three beautiful castles with a great crew, and I do hope that this crew will meet again soon for another fantastic expedition!!


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

Tour Report: The Baron's Castle [Revisit]

The second of three abandoned castles I visited on our tour in May of last year together with North Urbex, Pixelcracker and Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland was also one that I'd visited before.
And I have to look back at this first time for the start of my story about this visit.
As we had finished our first visit of this castle in July of 2015, we were sitting on the steps in front of the main door of the castle waiting for the last one of our crew to exit the castle through a basement window in the back, when the caretaker showed up on his little tractor - along with his German Shepherd. We had a nice talk with him and he introduced us to the dog - her name was "Helga". He told us that he named the dog Helga, because that was also the name of his wife and this way, he only has to remember one name...
Anyway, it was a nice conversation, and he didn't find out about the guy who was still in the house.

Two and a half years later, I arrived with my friends - and at that moment, the caretaker came on his tractor and drove right to the side of the castle and started cutting the grass...damn!
Because of the "history" I had with him, I got out of the car and went towards him. Helga the dog greeted me happily, and the cartetaker seemed a bit puzzled that I knew the dog's name. I introduced myself and he remembered the talk we had more than two years ago. I explained to him that I was there with a couple of friends and we were wondering if we could get into the castle to take some photos. He said that the baron wouldn't be too happy about that and that he was near impossible to reach to ask for permission.
And then he said..."and it's all locked tightly, so you couldn't get in anyway."
Did we hear correctly? Did he just challenge us?
So we asked if it was okay to take photos - if - we found a way in. He didn't really say yes, but neither did he really say no... So we told him that we were going around to check out the castle from the outside - the challenge still ringing in our ears...

Of course we did find a way in.
I'm not going to go into the details, but when we got out after about two hours and decided to say goodbye to the caretaker, he was mighty pissed at us, saying that he'd told us not to enter the building. We replied that we'd taken his words as a challenge and told him about our way in.
I can still hear his words as he was looking at the narrow access, then at one of us, saying "The fat one never made it through there!"

In the end, we were all friends again, and we even got a half hour history lecture about the castle from the caretaker, which made the visit even more worthwile!


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