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!


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Tour Report: Iron Works II

On the third day of our summer vacation in August of 2017, we got up pretty early. Our plan for the day was to explore one more location in the Harz mountains before we left for Dresden, where we were going to spend the rest of our vacation.
Again, Jens from the Schlittenhunde Erlebniscamp had arranged a nice breakfast outside. It was sunny and the temperature was about 5 degrees Celsius - luckily, the coffee was nice and hot :)
After breakfast, we packed our stuff, loaded the car and drove off - but not before we had promised Jens to come back again on our way home from Dresden :)

The spot we had planned for the way was an old iron works in the mountains. It was right across the street from another location that we had visited the year before. At the time, we didn't have any time left to also visit the old iron works - but it remained on the list, so this time around, we took the time.

We parked on a publik parking lot a bit down the street and started walking along the fence. We had to be careful, because the spot is located right by the road, so it's really easy to be spotted by people passing by. Also, some of the houses that used to be part of the iron works, have been renovated and there are people living in them.
We found a hole in the fence and slipped in unseen. We managed to explore some of the buildings before we noticed people on the premises. They didn't look like fellow explorers, so we decided to abort our exploration and head back to the car.
Although it was cut a bit short, it was a nice little explore before a rather long drive to our hotel in Dresden.
We arrived in Dresden in the early evening and had a nice hearty dinner before going to bed - the plan for the next day was another long ride to check out three abandoned hotels in the mountains near the border to the Czech Republic, so stay tuned...


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 W.

We had finished exploring the abandoned sanatorium as the first spot of our summer vacation tour in 2017. For the first two nights, we had asked for a place to sleep at the Schlittenhunde Erlebniscamp deep in the Harz mountains. Located on the large premises of another abandoned sanatorium, this wonderful place offers not only great photo opportunities on a really beautiful spot of land, but also the company of great people, good friends and - of course - the sled dogs!

Did I mention that there's a barbecue almost every night?

Anyway, we went grocery shopping to get some food and drinks for the night and drove up the mountain. We had a great barbecue and someone (I'm not telling who) broke out a bottle of Jack Daniel's; we went up to the trailer my wife and I were going to sleep in and started watching DVDs with documentaries about abandoned places.

At the end of the evening, the bottle was almost empty so that I skipped the idea of going for a night shoot in the old sanatorium - to be honest, I couldn't have taken another step ;)

I wouldn't have guessed, but I woke up bright and early the next morning to the rays of the sun creeping into the window, and since we had an appointment for a legal visit, we got up pretty quickly. Jens had prepared a fantastic breakfast - fresh rolls, eggs from his own chickens, fresh coffee - everything we needed to start the day!

We left the camp at about 09:30 a.m. to be in time for our appointment which was scheduled for ten o'clock.

The old abandoned knight's manor was an impressive sight to see while driving through the small village towards the high wall surrounding the place. We found a parking spot pretty close to the main gate where we were expected by a nice lady who told us a little bit about the place before giving us the key and leaving us alone to go about our business.

The main hall itself was worth the visit, but the place offered so many great sites to capture with the camera; it was really amazing, especially realizing that we were strolling through the halls that barons and baronesses have walked more than four centuries before we did...

After about three hours, we had finished exploring, gave back the key and left a donation for the association taking care of the mansion. We decided to drive back to the camp and relax for the rest of the day because we had a long drive planned for the next day.

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