March 31, 2019

Tour Report: Chemical Laundry G.

Only a few minutes down the street from the capacitor factory, we found the remains of another factory. During our planning phase, we had decided to check this one out as well, although it didn't look as promising as the capacitor factory - but if it's this close, who are we to let this explore pass us by?
During the research, I couldn't really find out much about this place. From what I discovered, there were at least two companies active on the premises - but I don't know if it was at the same time (at least for some years) or if one followed the other.
What I know is that at one point this was a factory for fire extinguishing equipment, and later, it was used as a chemical laundry. Both uses were backed up by some finds we made during our explore.

As I've said, it was really hot, so we took the car to transport our gear to the next spot. When we arrived, it was easy to find a spot to park - there are apartment buildings right next door and a parking lot along part of the fence. We chose a parking spot more or less right in front of a big hole in the fence, waited until there were no people in sight, and we slipped in...

The place was nicely overgrown. We had to squeeze ourselves through bushes and trees to get to the buildings. Besides the nature and some rooms with rather nice decay, we didn't find too many interesting sights to see, although we took our time checking out everything we could find without being seen from the office building that's adjacent to the old factory.

But when we were done, we did take the short way out - a quick jump over the fence to the office buildings, a few confused looks from the workers on the parking lot there, and we walked along the street back to the car and drove off :)


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








































March 27, 2019

Tour Report: Capacitor Factory G.

The next day of our summer vacation had started. It was a hot day in August of 2017, and we were still a bit exhausted from the ten-hour tour through the mountains of Eastern Germany the day before.
But we were still hungry. Hungry to see more of the beautiful nature of the region - and hungry to explore more abandoned places and breathe the dust of decades past...

As always, we didn't have breakfast in the hotel, but got some coffee and sandwiches at the bakery down the street and quickly were on the way.
Our main target for the day were two industrial ruins located pretty much next to each other in a city about one and a half hours from our hotel.
On the way, we had planned to check out a beautiful castle, but we were disappointed. The place was being renovated and there were workers on the premises. We took a couple of outside shots and enjoyed the warm summer morning for one or two cigarettes in the castle's ample park before getting back on the road.
We arrived at the first location around noon and did a short drive-by just to check the situation. The old capacitor factory lies right at the street near a residential area, so we were going to have to be cautious not to be spotted. Luckily, there was a public parking lot right next to the place - and this parking lot also offered access to the only obvious way into the factory.
It was easier than we had thought. We waited till there was no one in sight, found a hole in the fence and quickly climbed through an open window. We were in.
But as soon as we had settled down and got out the camera, we heard noises. Had we been caught already? No. Only moments later, it became clear that the noises we heard were just two teenagers of  maybe about thirteen or fourteen years playing in the old building.
The two left pretty much right after we had "caught" them - I guess playing around in old buildings isn't as cool anymore if adults also do it ;)

Since we had plenty of time because the next spot was only five minutes away, we took our time exploring the entire place. Due to its exposed location relatively close to the city center, there has been a lot of vandalism, but we did find some really nice decay - and I do like the old industrial architecture!
It had gotten really hot by the time we were done, and after we had climbed out, we decided to drive to the next location, so we didn't have to carry all our stuff back and forth....so stay tuned for the tour report from the location down the street!


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





































March 21, 2019

Tour Report: Hotel "Atlantis"

This abandoned grand hotel was the grand finale, so to speak, for our tour of three hotels in one day during our summer vacation back in August of 2017.
It was the most promising location for the day, but it was also the farthest to drive to. In light of the potential for truly beautiful decay, however, this was definitely going to be worth it!
As most of the times, we didn't really have a plan what we could expect in terms of security or access possibilities; judging from the amount of photos from this location that you can find on the internet however, we didn't count on too much "resistance".
Finding a spot to park was easy - there is a supermarket near the place that nicely concealed our true intentions for mischief.
We gathered our gear and walked the rest of the way up to the old hotel that waited for us a little hidden behind some trees. There were a lot of tourists walking on the paths along the hotel, but since there was no apparent fence or signs of any kind, we just walked up to the hotel and started looking around. The trees helped because we couldn't be seen from the street while we conducted our search for a way in.
To cut a long story short: We had walked around a long time and were almost ready to cancel the explore when we finally found a way in.
It led through some basements directly into the pool area. We were greeted by warm, humid air, and the pleasant smell of mold filled the room...
From the pool, we made our way through the newer part of the building, which was not as nice in terms of decay, but did still offer some good shots, and from there into the old part of the hotel.
The old part has a lot of wood in its partly half-timbered construction, so during the many years of abandonment, the decay has literally painted the walls and floors in beautiful colors and textures.
We took our time exploring all floors of the building, and the higher we climbed, the more decay we discovered - but more decay means also more danger, so we had to be really careful in some of the higher parts of the place.
Only when the sun was slowly beginning to set, we called it a day, packed our stuff and left the hotel. On the way off the property, a middle-aged couple walked up to us and asked us if we knew anything about the place. We had a nice short talk with them before we went back to the care and drove "home" (i.e. our hotel).


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











































March 14, 2019

Tour Report: Hotel of Many Doors

The second abandoned hotel that we visited on the fourth day of our summer vacation back in August of 2017 was more or less an accidental find. I didn't know about the location, but while planning the route, I scrolled through the region in Google Earth and stumbled upon this pretty large building. A little research and I knew that it was an abandoned hotel. So we had another spot on our map for the tour.
It took us about 45 minutes to drive from the first spot to this one, and when we arrived, we found three buildings that made up the hotel. The area wasn't really secured; only a rudimentary fence gave the impression that at some point in the past, someone cared what happened to the place. So we just walked up and started looking around.
Two buildings looked really nice from the outside but were so completely trashed on the inside that we didn't really take any photos. In addition, the condition of the floors wasn't really encouraging... The larger building was empty. Almost no interior was left - but there also wasn't any trash and there were hardly any graffiti.
Although some people keep telling me that empty locations like this are boring and offer no real photo opportunities, I really did like this place. Nice decay, beautiful light, doors, windows, stairs - I say, whoever thinks that locations like this are boring, hasn't understood what "urbex" means!

Anyway, we had a good time exploring the place and took our time for a complete walkthrough before we headed back to the car and drove off to the next hotel.


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





































March 10, 2019

Tour Report: Hotel "Snowy Mountain Station"

After exploring the old iron works and leaving the Harz mountains, it was a bit of a ride until we got to Dresden. We had chosen Dresden as our "base of operations", so to speak, for the next couple of days of our vacation. We checked in to our hotel and still had some time to go shopping for some drinks and snacks for later.
It was around 7pm when we got hungry and decided to check for a restaurant - and we did find a nice little place really close by the hotel. The name was promising: "Hüftgold", which literally means "hip gold", roughly to be translated as "love handles" :)
In case you ever make it to Dresden, go check it out: Hüftgold

The next morning, we got up early because we had a long day and many miles of road ahead of us. We bought breakfast at the gas station near the hotel and were quickly on the way to our first target location which was a bit more than one hunderd kilometers away.
The abandoned hotel was originally the railway station of a small town in the mountains of Eastern Germany. The train operations were stopped in the 1950s, and all tracks have been dismantled, so only a few architectural features give testament to the former use.

We had some trouble finding a spot to park, but eventually found one that was not too far away and wouldn't be too obvious for passing cars or pedestrians. It was only early in the morning, but it was a really sunny day and temperatures were already high. There was only a rundimentary fence around the premises, so the only difficulty was getting to the building through the dry and thorny flora surrounding it. Eventually we got there and found an easy way in on the backside of the building. Situated pretty close to a residential area, it was clear that there would be a lot of vandalism and graffiti, and it was exactly as expected. The place was pretty much trashed, but we did manage to get some nice shots out of it, so it was a nice spot to start out the day.

After about an hour and a half, we climbed back out and got back to the car. The next spot was about forty kilometers away - but driving in the mountains can be tricky, so we calculated about 45 minutes...stay tuned for hotel number two!


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

























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