Tour Report: Riverside Seventies

In March of 2019, we took a few days vacation to go on a short tour. Our first stop was our good friend Jens' place in the Harz Mountains. We arrived Saturday afternoon, and for the start of the weekend, we got our "party room" ready, went to shop for groceries, chopped some wood to keep warm for the night and went to roam through the abandoned sanatorium on the premises. In the evening, we had a barbecue in the teepee, and if I remember correctly, it got a bit late that night :)

In the morning, we had an unhurried breakfast, before we got on our way to check out a location that we had on our list for quite some time. It was a supposedly completely unvandalized apartment with the entire furniture from the 1970s. I had seen pictures of it, but I hadn't thought that it was anywhere near. But it was.

We drove to the location. There was an ensemble of a couple of houses, all of which seemed abandoned. There was no light in the buildings; it all looked dark. As we looked through one of then windows of the old guest house right at the street, we were startled to see a face appearing from out of the dark. After the scare, we all started laughing, and the man came out, and we started talking. It turned out that he and his wife had bought the buildings to turn the place into a multigenerational residence complete with vegetable garden - but they got into huge trouble with legal obstacles and the administrative machinery... So they were doing all that they could to keep the place alive and standing. We had a really good talk, but it was sad to hear that a great concept was on hold due to weird laws and official pedantry.

At some point, we asked the two about the 1970s apartment that was supposed to be in one of their houses...and it was! We asked if there was the possibility to check it out and take a few pictures, and they gave us their blessing - if we were careful! The building was more than 300 years old and so ramshackle that even parts of the basement had already collapsed. The apartment actually was the only place in the entire building that still had fairly solid flooring.

When we opened the door, we were amazed at what we saw. Although some of the furniture obvisously had been decorated sometime in the past, the apartment still looked authentic and was in great shape. Yes, the floor still felt a bit wobbly, but it was okay to walk on. The apartment wasn't big, but there were quite a few details, so we did spend a considerable amount of time taking photos before we came back out.

The owners hadn't expected to be paid, but we didn't want to leave without contributing to their project, so we left a small donation, which they really hadn't expected, and they were really happy about it.

It had only been a small location, but seeing and photographing it and meeting really nice people was enough for us to call it a day in therms of exploring and return to Jens and his sanatorium to enjoy the wonderful ambiance 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: Iron Ore Mine B.

Our last excursion in 2018 took us to the remains of an abandoned iron ore mine in the Harz Mountains in Germany. We had once walked around the place about three years before, but at the time decided to call it a day because we were in danger of being eaten alive by an army of mosquitos.

So around noon on New Year's Eve, we decided that the risk of encountering a similar amount of insects was fairly small and gave it another try.

The actual mine has been turned into a show mine, but the  above-ground operating facilities, along with the imposing colliery house, that were used as a vacation home during the final years of the GDR, are now abandoned and are easily accessible.

The day had started out really sunny, but as we drove to the mine, clouds started filling the sky, and the temperature began dropping. As we arrived at the parking lot of the show mine, the sun had completely disappeared behind a gray veil of clouds. It was only a short walk to the abandoned buildings, but on the way, a thick mist started creeping from the trees across the fields towards the houses...

The fog got thicker during our exploration, and this really was the first time that I saw fog creeping into a building through the windows and filling the rooms. It was an amazing sight, and I am glad that I managed to get a few shots of it.

Although this is one of the less spectacular locations that you can visit in the area, the fog and the absolute silence that came with it on this final day of the year made this exploration really special.

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

Tour Report: Hotel "Berdux"

Although we'd just spent the final days of our November vacation in 2018 with our friend Jens in the Harz mountains, we had decided to spend the New Year's celebration there as well. We arrived on December 29, and we had planned a few explorations for the following day. However, as we were cooking dinner over the fire that evening, Jens informed us that he had a few tasks for us to perform, since he was going to be on a sleigh tour with some tourists.

So much for our tour the next day. We spent the day up on the mountain and used the extra time in the afternoon to chop some wood for the next couple of days and drive into town to get some groceries and drinks for New Year's Eve. 

The tour had to wait until the next day.

We started the following day with a nice little breakfast, and since we didn't have to drive too far, we were able to take our time getting ready. The day started out beautifully - the sun was shining, and the air was cold and crisp.

We arrived at the first location after about fifteen minutes of driving. There was a public parking lot right next to it, so we didn't have to search for a place to park.

Entering the abandoned hotel was easy - there was an open door.

We came in through the kitchen, a few office rooms and the main dining area - they had fallen victim to the usual vandalism, and so we didn't have high hopes regarding the rest of the place.

We were wrong. Of course, there was vandalism, but less than we thought, and there was a lot of beautiful decay. Even the piano was still in pretty good shape.

We took our time to check out every corner of the old hotel, so we spent about one and a half hours in there, before we got on the way to 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: Sanatorium A.

It was still our late fall vacation in 2018. After exploring the abandoned railyard, we drove to the Harz mountains to visit with our dear friend Jens and to spend three nights at his place on top of the mountain. We didn't have a barbecue over the campfire as we'd thought - but Jens had installed an old kitchen wood stove in "our" room for heating and cooking, so we made a pot of stew for dinner and sat and talked with Jens for a few hours before going to bed.

The next morning, we had a nice long breakfast with fresh coffee, and the weather was beautiful, so we decided to go for a short tour to an abandoned sanatorium. We had seen this place in 2014 - but only from a distance, so to speak, since only a few weeks before, there had been a big fire, and the place was pretty well secured at the time. Looking at the maps, we saw that there were some more buildings than just the scorched main building, so it did seem to be worth a visit.

About 30 minutes after leaving, we arrived at our destination. There was a public parking spot nearby, so we were able to park our car and look like normal hikers heading into the woods. The premises of the sanatorium aren't really off limits; only the main building is surrounded by a fence.

First, we headed deeper into the woods to check out the three buildings standing a little further away. The first building we explored was originally the part of the hospital where children were treated. The building was beautiful - autumnal colors dominated the place. The wind had blown in large amounts of fall leaves through the windows, and the combination of yellow walls and blue tiles added a few spots of color.

The next two buildings that we checked out, were two smaller houses that looked more or less like residences. They may have been used by specialized doctors for private patients, but I'm not sure about that. These two buildings were even more decayed than the first one, and they looked pretty dangerous to enter. One of them had collapsed to the point that entering wasn't even possible. The second of the two houses looked pretty unspectacular - right up to the point when we went into the basement and discovered a bathtub full of old x-ray photos. These photos were from the 1960s and older. Some of them still had the patient's names on them, but most of them were illegible. It was still fascinating to find these "hands on" relics from the hospital past after so many years.

Towards the end of our exploration, we even took some time to check out the sanatorium's main building, and in spite of the massive destruction due to the fire, we did take a couple of shots there as well.

After finishing our exploration, we decided to call it a day, shop some drinks and groceries for the barbecue - and we also still had to chop some wood for the oven, so we wouldn't freeze at night. After all, it was November on top of the mountain, and the nights can get pretty cold up there...

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

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.