Tour Report: Sanatorium J. [Revisit]

The old sanatorium had been our "home location" for years, and it also became the final location on my birthday tour in 2018.

My parents had decided to join us for the birthday party on the mountain, in the camp next to the abandoned sanatorium. We were so happy that they finally came to visit and see for themselves what over the years, my wife and I had come to love about Jens (our good friend who lived there), this place and the people here.

And of course, Jens gave my parents the tour of the sanatorium, showed old photographs of the rooms and told stories about things that he had researched over the years. Being a pharmacist, my father was especially fond of a bottle of "Carbol" (i.e. Phenol, an obsolete disinfectant) that Jens had found somewhere on the premises.

While Jens was showing the place to my parents, I took the opportunity to get a few shots with my camera. It was late afternoon, and the light was really beautiful. This time, I also took a couple of photos of the walls, because I really liked the colors and textures of the decay.

Jens took his time to show my parents around, and when we were finished walking through, we went down to the campfire, and we began a really great evening with barbecue, beer and good friends! It was the perfect birthday.

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

Tour Report: Sanatorium "High Pines" [Revisit]

In terms of decay, this is one of my favorite locations to explore, so it seemed logical to pay another visit to this beautiful place on my birthday tour in 2018. Our friends North Urbex and Lichtbeschatter, who were with us for the weekend, hadn't seen this place before, so it was a new spot to them. Additionally, it wasn't too far from our "home base", so we'd be back in time for barbecue and beer :)

We took the same approach as the first time we were there - find a place to park, and just walk right up to the place. It had worked the first time, and it worked nicely this time as well. We found a parking spot a bit down the street, got our stuff together and walked up to what was once the main path through the park-like surroundings of the old sanatorium.

Since it was the middle of May, the bushes and trees were full of fresh green leaves, so you at first, we couldn't even see the building. Only as we stood almost right in front of it, we could see the majestic half-timbered structure standing between the trees. It was a beautiful sight.

The front door was open - just like the first time - and we started our exploration. The building has been subject to heavy decay, so only the central strairwell and the main corridors are relatively safe to walk on. The half-timbered walls were starting to bulge more and more, and I was under the impression that - after all, our last visit had been almost two years prior to this visit - the floors in some of the rooms were a few centimeters lower than before. One or two rooms at the side of the building had even collapsed completely.

We proceeded with the necessary caution as we made our way up through all the floors until we had seen every accessible room and taken every shot that we wanted. So with a lot of nice shots in our cameras, we went back to the car and got on the way to get ready for the evening program :)

But there was one more location to pay a visit to...

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

Tour Report: Hotel "Porphyrite" [Revisit]

Over the past couple of years, it became a tradition for us to celebrate my birthday by exploring a few abandoned places. On my birthday in May 2018, we were accompanied for this tour by our good friends North Urbex and Lichtbeschatter.

We had met the day before at one of our favorite places (actually THE favorite place), and we'd had a great evening with a few more friends as well as beer and barbecue. The next morning, we started with a hearty breakfast, and then we drove off to do some exploring.

Since we didn't want to drive too far, we had opted for two locations that my wife and I had visited before, but that were nice enough to go for a revisit.

The first location that we visited, was an abandoned hotel. My wife and I had visited it about ten weeks before, but at the time, it was raining cats and dogs, so we were happy to get another chance while the sun was shining - and shinig it was; it was the perfect weather for a birthday expploration.

Since my wife and I had been to the place before, we had no trouble finding an inconspicuous place to park, and we knew how to get in. The access was still the same, but it felt a bit more unsafe than the first time, because more of the floors had collapsed and were hanging loosely above us during our entry...

Still, a lot of the place was still in good condition and offered us a lot of nice photo opportunities. Our friend Lichtbeschatter does love detail shots, so it took a bit longer than the first time until we had walked through the entire place, but it was really worth it.

I think that we will be returning at some point to check out how the decay has developed in the two years since our visit - I can't wait :)

To find out about the history of this place and to check out more galleries from abandoned places, click the button below.