Tour Report: Children's Hospital B.

After exploring the abandoned "Hotel Teddybear", we spent the night at a very dear friend's place - an old sanatorium in the mountains. Campfire, drinks, barbecue, stories...a perfect evening. The next morning, we had breakfast, and we drove off to explore the next location on our list - an abandoned children's hospital.

The land on which the hospital was built, had been purchased by a guy from the Netherlands who had set up a very nice campground there. Most of the old buildings were still there, although a few (the ones that were still in good shape) were used for the campground. Since the entire place was private property, it was good that our friend had contacted the owner, so we were allowed to explore the place. We just had to go to the reception of the campground and say Hi, so to speak.

As we arrived at the place, we walked up to the reception, but there was no one there. We called the phone number that was on the door, and the owner answered. He said that he was doing some "campground stuff" and asked us to wait at the reception. It was a really hot day, and of course, since we were going on an exploration, we were wearing long pants, which wasn't really comfortable just sitting around in the sun.

After waiting for about 30 minutes, the Dutch guy showed up. He was really nice and explained everything (of course, he had to make a disclaimer since we were about to walk through a few buildings that weren't really safe anymore). In the end, he even allowed us to check out two buildings that really were off limits, because they were part of the campground (but still mostly abandoned, only a few rooms were used by the owner and his family). These buildings also are of fairly historic importance. Following the introduction, we got on our way and started exploring the area.

We started with the newest, most modern buildings that were added in the 1960s and 1970s. There was nothing much left to see, and the vandals have had their go at the place over the years. After that, we went over to one of the wooden buildings that from the outside look kind of like classical mountain villas. There we found a few rooms with some nice decay and a few medical books still lying around.  Following this building, we went over to the nursed dormitory, which was equipped with a swimming pool and a gym. Aside from that, there was nothing much to see. The next of the wooden houses that we checked out, had been almost completely gutted, so that only the wooden shell was still standing.

For the "grand finale", we went across the campground to the houses that usually are off limits to visitors. These are the houses in which the children of the people were interned who had tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. These were the best-kept buildings, because they were still partly in use by the campground's owners.

This was a legal exploration, but because the buildings were pretty far from the campground, we still felt like we were alone during our visit, and we really enjoyed the "silence" (the crickets were really loud) and the fact that we could take our time without the risk of being caught by anyone.

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

Tour Report: Hotel "Teddybear" [Revisit]

Six weeks between two explorations can feel like an eternity, but somehow nothing came up in the time before our summer vacation in 2018, so we were really looking forward to eight days of touring and exploring.

The first spot that we visited, was an abandoned hotel in the mountains that I had visited a year earlier with our friend Pixelcracker. I really liked it at the time, and since my wife wasn't with us at the time, it was a great chance for her to get a good look at the place.

We parked a long way down the street, so we'd look like all the other tourists and hikers that populated the small town during the summer season. We took the hiking path into the forest behind the hotel, so the neighbors wouldn't see us approaching. When there were no people around, we left the path, found the opening in the fence and quickly walked toward the building. The access that I had taken the year before was still open, so we didn't have to run around the property looking for another way in, and we got inside without being seen.

I was surprised that nothing much had changed since my first visit. Of course, some things had been decorated, other things had been stolen and there also was a bit of vandalism - but it was far from what other locations had to suffer over the same period of time. I guess we were lucky. The photos from the place that I have seen since then, show that the location really has changed. More vandalism, massive decorations, and more decay due to broken windows and open doors.

We took our time exploring the whole place, and I was glad that we were the only ones there during the entire time. After about two hours, we climbed back out and tried to get back to the path without being seen. It worked out nicely. We shortly thought about also visiting the other abandoned hotel that we passed on the way back to the car, but decided against it, because we were expected for a barbecue at our friend's place, and we still had to get some groceries.

This exploration was a really nice start for our vacation, and I am glad that I got to see the place again before it got more and more vandalized.

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

I also made a short video of our explore, that you can check out here:

Tour Report: Cable Factory K. [Revisit]

On the second day of our spontaneous tour in June of 2018, we took it a little slower than the day before and explored only one location. It was really hot outside, so we didn't want to have to walk too far.

We decided to check out an abandoned chemical factory that I'd visited in 2014 and that wasn't too far away. We took the subway and the bus to get there, but as we arrived, we saw that every single door was sealed tightly. No chance to get in. So we chose to go for a revisit in the old factory next door. I had visited his place together with my brother in 2014, but my wife didn't have the chance to come with us at the time, so this was a nice opportunity for her to check the place out.

Although much had changed in the surrounding area (new apartments had been built along with parking lots), the access that we had taken four years earlier still worked nicely. The place consists of two huge factory halls with the adninistration building in the middle between them. We entered the factory in the first of the two halls.

Of course, there was a lot of graffiti, but the spring had put a lot of green plants into the hall, so it almost looked like a jungle. Nature reclaiming industrial sites is something that I really like to photograph, and we took our time to look at everything.

As we exited the first hall to get to the administration building and the second hall, we suddenly stood right in front of a yellow container - just like the ones frequently used by security services... We couldn't see if anyone was inside, so we decided to take the risk and just walk past it. When we had almost reached the next building, the container door opened and the security guard came out. He had us.

It is our habit never to run from security, but always be friendly and polite, admit to trespassing and saying that we're sorry. In most cases, when the security guards see a rather expensive camera and two people in their mid-forties, they usually believe that we didn't trespass to vandalize anything and let us go. It was the same in this case. The security guard was in his twenties, and we really had a nice talk with him for about a half hour before he wanted to let us out of the main gate.

I told him that we'd forgotten to take a selfie in the factory hall and asked if he'd give us five minutes - and he did. This was a good example of how polite and friendly behavior can help you to not get in trouble even if you got caught trespassing.

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