Tour Report: Knight's Manor W.

We had finished exploring the abandoned sanatorium as the first spot of our summer vacation tour in 2017. For the first two nights, we had asked for a place to sleep at the Schlittenhunde Erlebniscamp deep in the Harz mountains. Located on the large premises of another abandoned sanatorium, this wonderful place offers not only great photo opportunities on a really beautiful spot of land, but also the company of great people, good friends and - of course - the sled dogs!

Did I mention that there's a barbecue almost every night?

Anyway, we went grocery shopping to get some food and drinks for the night and drove up the mountain. We had a great barbecue and someone (I'm not telling who) broke out a bottle of Jack Daniel's; we went up to the trailer my wife and I were going to sleep in and started watching DVDs with documentaries about abandoned places.

At the end of the evening, the bottle was almost empty so that I skipped the idea of going for a night shoot in the old sanatorium - to be honest, I couldn't have taken another step ;)

I wouldn't have guessed, but I woke up bright and early the next morning to the rays of the sun creeping into the window, and since we had an appointment for a legal visit, we got up pretty quickly. Jens had prepared a fantastic breakfast - fresh rolls, eggs from his own chickens, fresh coffee - everything we needed to start the day!

We left the camp at about 09:30 a.m. to be in time for our appointment which was scheduled for ten o'clock.

The old abandoned knight's manor was an impressive sight to see while driving through the small village towards the high wall surrounding the place. We found a parking spot pretty close to the main gate where we were expected by a nice lady who told us a little bit about the place before giving us the key and leaving us alone to go about our business.

The main hall itself was worth the visit, but the place offered so many great sites to capture with the camera; it was really amazing, especially realizing that we were strolling through the halls that barons and baronesses have walked more than four centuries before we did...

After about three hours, we had finished exploring, gave back the key and left a donation for the association taking care of the mansion. We decided to drive back to the camp and relax for the rest of the day because we had a long drive planned for the next day.

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

Tour Report: Sanatorium F.

This abandoned sanatorium in the mountains of Germany was the first spot my wife and I explored on our summer vacation tour in 2017. We had left home relatively early to be able to fit in a short exploration before going grocery shopping and then drive up the mountain, so to speak, to the "Schlittenhunde Erlebniscamp" (Sled Dog Camp) where we were going to visit good friends and spend the first two nights of our vacation.

Since there was so little information about this sanatorium, we didn't really know what to expect. The usual questions arose: Was there going to be security? How tightly has it been sealed? Maybe it has been demolished? And what about the nighbors?

We found a public parking lot a bit down the road that looked inconspicuous enough - after all, this is a tourist area with lots of hiking trails, so two people with backpacks shouldn't look too suspicious. For added entertainment, rain had started just as we had arrived. On the good side, this led to almost no one except us walking around next to the road, and we could slip into the overgrown path without being seen.

There was no fence, the doors were open, and there was no sign of a security service patrolling the area. Access was really easy due to the open doors, and we started our exploration in the basement and worked our way up to the higher floors. After finishing the main building, we checked out the smaller adjacent building, before we walked back to the car to check out another place before heading to the grocery store.

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

Tour Report: The Priest's House [DK]

An abandoned farmhouse near the North Sea was the spot we had planned to explore on the way back home from my wife's family reunion in Denmark in late July of 2017. A friend of mine had discovered the location and found out that it had belonged to a priest who died about ten years or so ago.
It actually was a detour of about 100 kilometers on our way home, but it turned out to be worth it in the end. First we drove West from the island of Fyn until we started heading South on the coastal highway. The road that after a lengthy drive led us to the farmhouse was only little more than an overgrown path between large fields of crops and cattle. And this road was kind of long...
At some point, we couldn't keep driving because the path became too narrow and too muddy to safely keep going, so we parked the car on the edge of a field and decided to continue on foot - after all, it was a rental car.
A white rental car. Which wasn't the perfect color car to be driving between cattle fields in Denmark. The flies REALLY liked the car...
Anyway, we managed to escape the millions of flies that were surrounding the car and walked the rest of the way until we got to the house.
I had seen photos of the place, and I have to say that at first, I was a bit disappointed, because the place was actually pretty trashed. But the scenes I had seen in the photos were still there, and it turned out to be a really worthwile spot after all. There were a lot of details that pointed towards the person who had once lived there, although I would assume that a lot of stuff had beens tolen already.

We finished exploring the house and decided not to go to the barns because it was hot, humid and the way was so overgrown that you would have needed a machete to cut through.
Not checking the barns was not such a good idea, because we missed some really cool stuff - but no matter, that way we were able to discover more cool stuff during our next visit. But that's a story for another time!
We managed to not get too many flies into the car with us and got back on the road to drive home.


To check out all the photos from this neat little spot and to find more galleries from abandoned places, click the button below.

Tour Report: The Princess & the Cat [DK]

We had finished exploring the second of two abandoned farmhouses that day, and we were ready for the next spot. This next spot however was bad news in two ways. First, it was in use again, andsecond,  we had to conduct some unexpected "repairs" on Dan's car...
No matter, we drove on to the next spot. It was an old house outside a small village in a rural area of the island of Fyn. We didn't have any information regarding the place, but it looked promising at the first look while driving by. We parked a bit down the road and just walked up to the place. The house seemed to belong to some company, and it was definitely abandoned.
But there was no way in. We sneaked around the building about three times, checking every possible access. Doors, windows...no chance, evrything was locked tightly. And it had looked so promising. Lots of furniture, decay - but no vandalism. We were a bit disappointed and started leaving when my wife pointed out the barn. She just said, "Look!".
There was an old headlight kind of peeking around the barn door, almost looking right at us. It belonged to a beautiful old car that we didn't know the type of. And as if that wasn't enough, there was a second old car standing right next to it. I instantly knew that this was an old Jaguar.
It was the first time that I'd discovered real "vintage" cars. Of course, I've seen some cars in the locations that I explored, but never classics such as these two.
The Jaguar was quickly identified - a Mk VII built in the early 1950s. The second one took a bit longer to find out, but we managed. It was a Vanden Plas Princess 4 Litre R which was built in the middle of the 1960s.
So in spite of the initial disappointment, the spot held a very cool surprise for us - and I'm sure that we'll get to explore the house as well :)


To check out all the photos from the two classics and to find more galleries from abandoned places, click the button below.

Tour Report: Farmhouse No.33 [DK]

Only a few meters down the road from the first location, we found our second abandoned farmhouse of the day. As we arrived, the rain really started getting heavy, so we parked the cars by the road near the driveway and hurried towards the old farm. The first building we reached was the barn. The door was open, and it was dry in there, so in we went.
We started taking photos of the barn, and after that, we waited for the rain to stop. Since it was our first tour together with Dan from Urbex Inn, we had a bunch of stuff to talk about, stories to tell and plan the remiander of the tour, so the time went by quickly until the rain was over.
We then went into the main building, which wasn't really spectacular. No furniture was left - nor anything else. So we took a few photos, explored the adjacent building and were back on the road againd and drove off to the next spot.


To check out all the photos from this little place and to find more galleries from abandoned places, click the button below.