Tour Report: Railway Tunnel T.

After our visit to the car sculpture park, we wanted to check out another location with my cousin Peter. We decided on a disused railway tunnel, as it wasn't too far away and we assumed it would be easy to reach.

First of all, it wasn't that easy to find a parking spot, because the path to the tunnel entrance, which was supposed to be “easy” to reach, is located in the middle of a residential area. So the walk was a bit longer than expected—and there was no direct path to the tunnel, so we had to walk quite a distance along the former railroad tracks.

This wouldn't normally have been a problem, but unfortunately the route had turned into a veritable jungle of nettles, some of which were as tall as a man. There was no beaten path or anything similar – we had to walk right through the middle of it.

At some point, I extended the legs of my tripod and swung them around in front of me to “clear” a path, so to speak. That worked quite well, so Peter grabbed a long, sturdy branch and swung it energetically to clear a path as well.

Soon we saw the tunnel entrance in the distance. We could see that the opening was sealed with large wooden panels—but there was a small opening in the form of a door.

We were excited that we would probably have the opportunity to explore the tunnel from the inside.

But no such luck—just a meter behind the wooden wall, a solid steel grate blocked the tunnel.

Since there was only a small door, there was no real source of light, and the light from our flashlights was lost in the darkness. Taking pictures from the inside was therefore completely pointless.

All that remained of this trip were the pictures from outside and the fond memories of our battle with an army of nettles.

To find out more about the history of this place, click the button below.

Tour Report: The Park of Car Sculptures

The second location we visited during our summer vacation in 2020 was the well-known “Car Sculpture Park” in Neandertal near Düsseldorf.

This is not an abandoned place, but a legally accessible open-air "museum" where a somewhat eccentric car dealer has been letting fifty classic cars from 1950 rot away since 2000.

We visited the place together with my cousin, who kindly let us stay at his house for the first few days of our vacation. Peter is very interested in our hobby and not only accompanied us to Neandertal during our stay, but also to another location—more on that in the next post.

The car sculpture park is located directly opposite the Neanderthal Museum, which usually makes it difficult to find a parking space. Fortunately, we arrived quite early in the day, so we were able to snag a parking space right next to the park entrance.

We paid the admission fees, which are graded according to whether you just want to look around, take photos with your cell phone, or take pictures with a “real” camera.

The 20,000-square-meter site offered a wealth of motifs from the world of luxury cars, so to speak:

A stretch of steep racing track on which historic Jaguars and Porsches compete in one last eternal race. A remnant of the Soviet world power, a Moskovich built in 1950, symbolizes half-buried the demise of its country.

A piece of the Berlin Wall, with the original graffiti - and in East and West an army car of the two worlds from 1950 decaying in the face of time. An 11 CV, the gangster limousine that belonged to a French police chief for decades. Some cars have been entwined by tree roots, others have been cut in half as trees have grown through them.

Unfortunately, the grounds filled up very quickly with people (it was a Sunday), making it difficult to take pictures without people in them, but with a little patience, it was possible to capture most of the subjects in peace.

The museum is only open for three hours—with more time, I'm sure I could have photographed even more perspectives. But even so, it was a great experience, and I can well imagine visiting this place again sometime to see how the cars have changed since our visit.

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

Operation "Easter Basket" - Maison Nutcracker

After going for a quick visit of the abandoned technical museum, we only had one location left to visit before finally heading home. It's been generally called the Nutcracker House and is located somewhere in the woods of North Rhine-Westfalia.
At least the parking spot was kind of on the way, but there was a pretty long walk ahead of us. And most of it was uphill...
We first passed some houses where people were obvioulsy having a party. We could smell barbeque and hear them talking. At the end of the street, we found the path into the woods. This path soon turned into a really cool hollow way full of leaves from the last fall and with old trees lining both sides.

The path seemed to go on forever, and since we didn't know the exact coordinates of the place we were looking for, we started to doubt if we would ever find it.
Just then, we passed a field on our left side, and at the end of this field, we could see an abandoned house with crumbling walls looking at us through the trees.
The rest was easy - the back door was open.

Although the house was relatively small, we spent a considerable amount of time in there. There were so many details. It was the perfect finale for a great tour!


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

Operation "Easter Basket" - Technical Museum B. [Revisit]

After we had dropped off Elmar from Lichtbeschatter at the train station, we went on the way home ourselves - but not without stopping at one or two spots on the way.
The first location on our way back was the abandoned technical museum that my wife and I had first visited in early 2015 and that Freddy from Nordgriller hadn't visited yet.
Since it was conveniently close to our route, we made it our first stop.
It's a quick stop-and-shoot location. Since it is publically accessible and open-air, there is no attempting to get in, you just park your car, get out and get she photos you like.

Last I heard, the owner had told a local newspaper that all the relics will be gone by the end of 2016. I don't know if this has been done or if there are still some exhibits left, but it looks like the time for this location is running out.


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

Operation "Easter Basket" - Drop Forge G.

After leaving the university much earlier than we had originally planned, we still had some time before dropping off Lichtbeschatter at the train station, and we decided to go and check out another spot that was more or less located on the way.
After all, this was the Ruhr area, and we hadn't seen as much industrial lost places as we had expected, so this was our chance to add one more inudstrial spot to this tour.
We had the address, and we quickly found a nice place to park right across the street. It was Easter Sunday, so there really wasn't much traffic or people walking who might spot us.
We crossed the street and we didn't even have to look for a long time - there was a large hole in the main gate. We hopped through, went around the corner of the building and there was an open door. We were in.
There was some nice decay, but also a lot of trash that was lying around, and there was the expected amount of graffiti.
Still, this was a nice place to end our tour together with Lichtbeschatter. We got out again, drove to the train station, dropped him off and the three of us went on to the next spot.


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

Operation "Easter Basket" - University E.

On the way back from the Trauma Clinic, we made a short stop at an abandoned British military base in the area, because Freddy and Elmar hadn't been there yet.
We quickly checked out the two churches and the movie theater and then left, because it was getting dark. I didn't taken any photos there, because I had previously been there.
The next day was the day to go home. Elmar had a train ticket, and we were going to take the car. But not before a couple of explores in the morning.
Our first stop was an abandoned university building that we had seen some really nice pictures of, and it was pretty close to our hotel, so why not check it out.
We drove there, found a parking spot and started looking for a way on the premises. It was harder than we had thought; the fence was pretty tight, and there was no way to get over it. After some looking around, we found a way over the old railway tracks behind the building.
That was it, though. There was no way to get into the building. it looked like every new crack in a window, every open door is sealed right away to prevent vandalism.
So we didn't get lucky there, but we still had the option of taking a look at the university's greenhouses which were right next to the main building.
So we went over there, the door was open. We took a couple of shots and then left for our next spot.


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

Operation "Easter Basket" - Trauma Clinic O.

From the abandoned foundry, we drove further East. We had gotten a tip regarding an abandoned hospital which supposedly still had some nice interior in it.
The photos I had seen looked promising, so why not check it out.
It was a Saturday, so the roads were pretty crowded, and it took us about 90 minutes to get there. Finding the spot was easy - it's right in the middle of a small town.
We found a parking spot right next to the hospital - I think it was the former hospital parking lot, so that was pretty convenient.
The fact that it was Saturday didn't make things easy, though. There were people walking by literally all the time.
So we first took a little walk around the premises checking if we saw a way in. There was nothing to see, so we had to get closer. Displaying our refreshuingly casual attitude, we just walked up to the hospital and started checking for open doors and windows. We tried to stay out of sight, and I think we managed pretty well. We didn't find a way in, though...
But then I remembered another tip from the guy who had given me the tip for this spot in the first place. He had said something about curtains and a window...and there it was - an open window!
Remaining unseen, the four of us jumped in.
We hadn't been promised too much - it was a nice place!! A lot looked like the usual hospital: patient's rooms, bathrooms, recreation rooms etc., but the ground flor really had some nice scenes to shoot. It was really dark because most of the windows were boarded shut, but we had brought enough lights with us.
After about two hours, we climbed back out, closed the access window the best we could and went back to the car. It was afternoon already, and we still had the way back ahead of us - and we wanted todrop by another location...


To find out more about the 130-year history of this hospital and to check out all the photos from this place, click the button below.