Tour Report: Meat Factory D.

We got so caught on this one! But the security service could have saved themselves the hassle if they had paid attention before we entered.
But let's start at the beginning. The day before, we had a really great tour together with my mother-in-law, visiting an abandoned manor house from the 17th century and the beautiful "Devil's Bridge".
The next day, we still had some time left before dropping off my mother-in-law at the train station, and we decided to spend the time wisely - exploring more abandoned places!
The first spot early in the morning was a huge abandoned  meat factory built in the late 1920s. As we drove up to the building, we were impressed by the size and the beautiful architectural style.
We found a parking place near the factory and walked around a bit to do a preliminary check for possible access routes.
As we looked over a wall to the main door, we saw two people leaving the building. One of them was carrying a camera and a backpack. We tried to alert them to our presence using a sort of "loud whisper" to see if they had information regarding the access on the premises. Apparently, they didn't hear us, because they disappeared and left the premises somewhere where we couldn't see.
So we had to find the access for ourselves. Which we did. We had to squeeze between a wall and a fence and get through a thicket of thorny bushes. My mother-in-law declined and wanted to wait in the car, so my wife and I went in without her.
We managed to get through the plants, and to our surprise, the door to the building was open. We entered and immediately started taking photos.
After about twenty minutes, one of the two guys that we saw leaving the building earlier came out of one of the stairwells and said "Gotcha!".
He had us. Turns out that he worked for the security company tasked with watching the building - and the "two guys" leaving the building earlier was just him escorting his first catch of the day off the premises...
Apparently, we had tripped one of many motion detectors inside the building...
Anyway - the upside was that aside from having to leave, no consequences ensued - and we got to leave the place through the "normal" gate and didn't have to crawl through the bushes again!
We even told the guy that if he had paid attention to us whispering over the wall, he could have saved himself and us the trouble. He actually had thought that he was the one who tripped the motion sensor as he left with the guy before us and only came by when we tripped the next one...


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

Tour Report: The Devil's Bridge

Not really an abandoned place, this bridge had long been on my list of places that I want to visit, and during our summer vacation in 2017, the day finally came.
It was day seven of our vacation. The day before, we had picked up my mother-in-law from the train station in Dresden, because we had invited her to spend a couple of days with us and maybe explore one or two spots.
After we unexpectedly had successfully gained access to the abandoned knight's manor, we drove North towards the Rhododendron park where the bridge is located.
Unfortunately, it started raining a little on the way - and we had hoped for some sunlight so the famous reflection of the bridge would show up nicely...
As we arrived, the rain had stopped, but the sky was still cloudy when we started our walk through the park. No matter. The bridge and the surrounding elements as well as the park itself were really beautiful, and we started taking photos right away.
The only annoying thing were the groups of tourists which apparently had no intention of letting anyone take photos except themselves and kept running in front of the camera in the most impossible situations.
But it turns out that these tourists, who couldn't wait to take their photos and be on their way again, actually did us a service by stalling us, because after a while, the sun came out and we did get the photos that we had come for.
And we were lucky with our overall timing as well, because in 2018, the pond was drained to conduct extensive repairs on the bridge.
So all things considered, this was a very successful little photo opportunity at (to me) one of the most beautiful places in the world.


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

Tour Report: Knight's Manor "Friendly Neighbor"

I had come across this former knight's manor in deepest Saxony while planning the summer tour 2017 together with my wife. We didn't have high hopes to gain access.
Located on a street corner in the middle of a residential area, partly surrounded with a stone wall - it didn't look like there was any chance of entering this place. But since it was on the way, of course we drove by to check it out
It looked just as we had expected - no chance to get inside.

At the end of the street, some neighbors were gathered around a workbench and apparently discussed ongoing construction on one of their homes. Asking won't hurt, I thought, and I went over to the people, introduced myself politely and asked if they knew if it was possible to enter the old manor house to take some photos.
To my great surprise, the answer was, "That might be possible, ask the lady across the street." Said and done - I went to the house right across the street, rang, and a lady of about 65 years opened the doot. Again, I introduced myself and asked for access to the manor.
Her answer: "Oh sure! Wait  a moment while I get the key from my husband."
Wow.
Just like that! Were we in, and she left us alone. After about 5 minutes, she came back, because she had probably become a little unsure with two strangers in the house, and she asked us a little further what we actually planned to do with the pictures etc.
During the conversation that followed, it turned out that about 5 years before our visit, she and her husband had received the key from the then 80-year-old owner from somwhere farther away with the request to watch over the house. Since then, the owner hadn't been heard from or seen again, and no one knows what happened to him.

Anyway, the lady herself had also been a resident of one of the apartments that had been built into the manor during the time of the German separation and, she was able to tell us a lot about it.

And the moral of the story: Once again, it tunred out that an open and friendly demeanour sometimes does lead to the goal - and that in fact friendly neighbors do exist!


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