Tour Report: Railyard S.

After we finished our tour through the abandoned castle, we got on the way and drove towards the Harz Mountains where a very dear friend was expecting us for a nice barbecue on the campfire. It was still relatively early, and the weather was beautifully sunny, so we decided to make another stop at an abandoned railyard that wasn't really on the way, but a detour of about an hour was acceptable for us.

It took only about half an hour on the Autobahn, and we found a regular parking space right across the street from the abandoned railyard. To be honest, I had expected this place to be harder to get into, since it is located right next to an active railway area (and at the time of our visit, I hadn't seen any new photos for a while) - but it actually was really easy.

The fence had been removed on the backside of one of the engine houses, so that we could just walk onto the premises. Just as quickly, we found an open door and started taking photos.

At that point, we realized just how close we were to the active parts of the area, because railway workers were walking right past us with only the walls and wooden doors of the engine house between them and us.

From that point on, we tried not only to be quiet, but to be REALLY quiet!

From the first locomotive shed which was built mostly from bricks and wood, we moved West to the second engine house, which was a bit newer and built from reinforced concrete and steel, and covered with a wooden roof. The concrete structure allowed for larger windows and more light - and roll-up gates made from metal and glass that were almost completely transparent. Luckily, the workers had moved to a more remote location, so we weren't spotted - but it was still a bit exciting :)

Both engine houses had a unique character due to the different materials used and different lighting conditions. One had a warmer, more antique mood, whereas the other was colder and more modern, which I've tried to include in my editing of the photos.

Following the exploration of the locomotive sheds, we turned our attention to the administration buildings and smaller workshops. Of course, there had been a lot of vandalism, but there was also a fair share of nice decay for us to enjoy. The last building that we explored was especially enjoyable. The sun bathed the inside of the building in a yellow, autumnal light, emphasized by the yellow and blue paint on the walls - it was beautiful!

This place was well worth the detour - and we still were on time for our barbecue on top of the mountain :)

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

Tour Report: Knight's Manor "The Blue Estate"

We're still looking back at our vacation in November of 2018. After a day of touring together with my mother-in-law, we spent the night at her place, before starting the next stage of our trip. On the way from the city of Kassel to our next destination in the Harz Mountains, we stopped to check out an abandoned castle in a small town situated in a valley between two low mountain ranges.

We wanted to check if there was any possibility to explore the beautiful old castle located on the northern edge of the village. As we drove up and saw the castle, our hearts started beating faster - what a beautiful building this was! At the same time, feelings of disappointment started creeping in, because we could already see that there was no way to get on the premises. A high wall and a large gate kept us from entering, and we did not want to sneak across various neighbor's lawns to check if there was a possibility to enter from the other side.

So we were almost ready to get back into the car and drive on to the next stop, when we saw an older man exit one of the outbuildings and walk across the courtyard. We called out to him, and it turned out that he was a kind of caretaker for the place. He lived in the outbuilding and was looking out for the castle because a new owner had bought the building and was planning to begin renovation soon.

We asked him if there was a possibility to get into the castle to take a few photos - and to our surprise, he said yes! Then he opened the gate, so we could park right in the courtyard. After we had gotten our gear out of the car, he unlocked the castle door and took us on a tour through the castle.

This guy was really nice. He was with us the entire time, told us about the history of the castle, told stories from the past and explained what was planned for the future. All in all, we were in there for about two and a half hours, and the caretaker managed to fill the entire time with a wealth of information while we took our photos. He seemed to really like us and the fact that we had a genuine interest in the place and its history. We could have stayed even longer, but we had a dinner engagement by the campfire for the evening - and one more spot to explore on the way...

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

Tour Report: Hotel "Broadleaf's Court"

This was a memorable one. I had known that this spa hotel was abandoned, but I had never seen any photos from this place, so we really didn't know what to expect when we pulled up on a rainy day in November of 2018.

The hotel was obviously abandoned and apparently had been for some time. Some windows were boarded up, but most of them were intact. Yet, at first glance, there was no way in. We took some time to wander around the premises, looking for open doors and windows, and we did in fact find a window that apparently had been forcefully opened in the past - but it had been sealed shut again, so this wasn't a way in either.

Well, we had tried everything and hadn't found an access, and we had actually decided to call it a day, when I wanted to make another round to check for open windows. What can I say? It worked! I didn't find any open windows, but we got in nonetheless. I am not going to tell you exactly how we managed it, but I can tell you that it involved bribing a security guard that suddenly appeared :)

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

Tour Report: Hotel "Rockinghorse"

In November of 2018, we paid a visit to my mother-in-law, and since she has been going on explorations with us since 2013, we decided to go check out some abandoned places.

The first spot we had chosen to explore was an old abandoned house on the edge of a small town. It had been turned into a bar or club of some kind, and the combination of an old house and a possibly modern bar seemd like a promising combination. We parked the car in town and walked to the location, because there was no real parking place close to the building - and of course, we didn't want to arise suspicion with our out-of-town license plate.

So we walked to the old building and checked for a way in. There was none. We checked every inch on the outside, but there was no open door, no open window or hole in the wall where we could enter, so we had to leave without having seen anything.

Luckily, the the next option we had on our list was an abandoned hotel only about half an hour away, so we hoped that we were going to have more luck there. The hotel sits on a hillside right next to a highway. We could have parked right in the driveway - but this is something that we don't really like to do, so we looked for a parking place a bit farther away, and found one in town pretty much right across on the other side of the highway. So we gathered our gear and walked across the bridge that had led people right to the hotel and restaurant for many decades in the past.

As we approached the abandoned hotel, we noticed that many of the windows were broken and thrash was lining the path that led up to the building. We didn't have high hopes regarding what we were going to see - and we were right.

Although the outside (with the exception of the broken windows) still looked pretty good and displayed beautiful architecture, the inside had obviously been ravaged by vandals for quite some time. Furniture had been broken, and there was some damage from a fire that had been made in the fire place and that probably got a bit out of hand.

The rooms had clearly been used by squatters and/or junkies - we found artifacts pointing to both. Surprisingly enough, there was very little "real" decay. Apparently, most of the roof had withstood vandalism, weather and time for eight years between the closing of the hotel and our visit. Only a few spots displayed the early stages of water damage and the corresponding decay.

However - despite the lack of decay and the amount of vandalism, we took our time checking every room inside the place, and we did manage to get some photos to bring home. We finished our exploration with a thorough inspection of the outside of the building, before we headed back to the car and headed for the next location.

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

Tour Report: Villa Dr. Anna L. [Revisit]

Our visit to the abandoned hotel took less time than we had expected due to the high level of vandalism, so we still had a little time and daylight left to explore another place on that day in November of 2018. Driving to a location however was out of the question, because it would have taken too much time, and we probably wouldn't have arrived until after dark. So we decided to take the easy option and just walk down the street a bit to pay a visit to the famous (or infamous) Villa Dr. Anna L.

I had checked out this place in 2016 together with a friend while my wife and her mother were having coffee, because they were too scared to get caught at the time. But this time, it was raining a bit, so there weren't a lot of people outside, and my wife felt a little safer.

Entering the house was easy - the front door was open.

Upon entering, I could already see that the years that had passed since my first visit hadn't been kind to the old house. More things had been stolen, others had been moved around, and the overall condition of the house hadn't improved either. Stairs were shaky, and some floors we didn't even dare to step on, especially on the upper floors.

Still - there were many interesting things left, and in the end, my wife was happy to have seen the place - after all, she is a pharmacist, so a doctor's office is an interesting place for her to explore.

And in spite of the vandalism, we still managed to get a few nice shots that made this visit worthwhile.

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