Tour Report: Grinding Shop II [Revisit]

 When we arrived at the car after exploring the cave, we had a quick snack before heading to the next - and final - location of this tour. It was a drive of about forty minutes along the western flank of the Harz mountains. The sun was shining and we enjoyed looking at the beautiful  scenery - after all, it was the middle of May and everything was green and beginning to bloom.

As we got to the location, we parked on the same public parking spot that my wife and I had used the first time a few months earlier. We got our gear out of the trunk and walked over to the about 120 year-old building. Since the place is pretty visible from the road, we hurried to get inside - luckily, the access was still the same as the first time.

I was amazed to find that nothing really had changed in the months since our first visit - something that has become increasingly rare over the past couple of years.

Our friends North Urbex and Lichtbeschatter hadn't been to this place, so they took their time to get all the shots they wanted, and I used the opportunity to get a few shots of details that I'd regretted not to have photographed the first time.

In addition, the sun was a welcome change from the last time, when it had been raining the entire day. The afternoon sun made the colors so much more vivid, and the plants outside emphasized the green moss and paint on the old machines.

Although the place is pretty small, we were in there for well over an hour before heading back to the camp to wrap up our trip :)

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

Tour Report: Heaven's Cave [Revisit]

The birthday barbecue had been a complete success. I can't recall how long we sat at the campfire, and we hadn't planned anytjing specific for the following day, so it really didn't matter :)

We got up pretty early anyway. When there's a pack of Greenland dogs howling at six in the morning, it's hard to stay asleep...

I think we got up at around eight in the morning for a nice breakfast on the campground. About an hour and a few coffees later, we left for our first location of the day.

A few months earlier, my wife and I had explored a small cave in the mountains, and we thought that this would also be a nice spot to explore together with our friends North Urbex and Lichtbeschatter.

The drive was about 45 minutes, and after that, we had to walk another 30 minutes or so to get to the entrance. My wife and I had taken the long way through the tunnels, but since one of our companions was a bit tall, we chose the easy way in and went through the door in the railway tunnel to get in.

The cave isn't really spectacular, but still an amazing site for someone who doesn't get to explore something like this very often, so we did spend about half an hour there to walk around take photos before we started our way back to the car.

There was one more location to explore before we concluded this tour...

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

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.