Tour Report: Children's Home "Algae Bloom"

It was December, and we had planned a short explore for our traditional annual Christmas tour. Just like in the years before, our plan was to go West and check out a few spots along the North Sea.
As always, we were accompanied by my mother-in-law, and this time our friend Freddy from Nordgriller Urbex was also with us.
The first location that we had on our list was an abandoned children's home. A friend of ours had visited this place about a year before us and had given us a few hints regarding the entry, so it shouldn't be too tough.
It was the typical weather for the region and the time of year - rain and wind. Lots of it. But that wasn't going to keep us - after all, we knew how to get in, so we wouldn't have to be outside for too long.
At least that's what we thought.
Finding the place was easy, but the access wasn't accessible anymore. There was no way in. We walked around the building for about half an hour, and we checked every door and every window, but nothing was open.
Luckily, the location consists of two parts. There is a swimming pool that belonged to the children's home - and that building was open!
So after all, the first location was at least a partial success - and the swimming pool was really nice. The humidity inside had caused a nice growth of moss and algae on many of the surfaces, so I managed to get something of that green that I like so much :)
About an hour after entry, we left the place again and drove off to the second spot.


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

Tour Report: The Farm of Cars

This place was the second and final spot of our X-Mas Exploration in 2016. After successfully exploring the old chalk pit, we drove for about 45 minutes until we got to this place.
I had gotten a tip that there were old cars to be discovered, so we had decided to check it out.
We parked a little down the road, yet far enough from the neighbors' house as not to attract any attention. The wind blew fierce, so we hurried to get into the house, and we quickly found an open door by the side of the main building.
The house itself was pretty ramshackle and had been vandalized, so there weren't too many shots to be taken there. But the barn and the back yard did hold some automotive tresures for us, so to speak. Nothing spectacular, but nice to look at, and the red 1955 Peugeot 403 was really nice to look at.

As we were packing our stuff back into the car when we were done, a little girl (probably the neighbor's daughter) approached us and asked what we were doing. We told her that we were taking photos of the old building because we are fascinated by "old stuff". She asked more questions in a way that made the questions feel kind suspicious. We suspected that she was sent by the neighbor - possibly the owner of the place - to check if we were looking for criminal things such as illegal waste disposal or something...
Anyway, after this short episode, we drove home and were back just in time for coffee :)


To check out all the photos from this neat little place, click the button below.

HAWK-Missile Launch Site W.

For the last couple of years, it has kind of become a tradition for my wife and me to take her mother on an excursion with us on the second day of christmas.
Last year was no different.
We had decided to drive to the North Sea coast and check out an abandoned HAWK site on the way. We had two possible sites on our way.
It was late December in Northern Germany, and the weather acted accordingly. It was bleak. Very bleak. Dark clouds and rain. Not pouring rain, but rain.
The first HAWK site we laid our eyes on was secured and appeared to be in use by local farmers. And you do not want local farmers getting mad at you.
So we drove on to the next site. This one looked fine. It was clear by the looks of it that at some point in the past this one also had been used by farmers, but not at the moment...
We left the car, put on our rain coats and the three of us - including my mother-in-law squeezed through a hole in the fence.
The site itself was not spectacular at all. All kinds of animals have left their droppings in the buildings, and the rainy , but windy climate doesn't really make for a nice type of decay.
But it is a remnant of the cold war and by that, witness to a very interesting episode in our history.

After about 45 minutes, we left the location and drove to the coast for a nice hot North Sea shrimp soup.


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

North-Frisian Farm House [Revisit]

About ten weeks after my first visit to the abandoned farm house together with my wife and my mother-in-law, my friend Nordgriller and I decided to pay another visit to this beautiful place as part of a tour along the west coast of Northern Germany. On that particular tour, we also visited an abandoned HAWK site as well as a Special Ammunition Site (a nuclear weapons depot) - so more posts about this particular tour will follow.

It was the first location of the day, and the drive across the beautiful Northern German countryside on a sunny Sunday morning at the beginning of march was fairly uneventful, as was the way onto the site of our location.
Once there, we unpacked our stuff, smoked a cigarette and waited for three more guys that wanted to go on the tour with us.
As soon as they arrived, we made our way into the house, wich was easy because the back door was still unlocked and open wide.
We found that everything was in exactly the same spot and condition as almost three months earlier. It seemed as though no one had been there in the time since. I know that this was not the case because I know of other people who had visited the place in the past - but I was really happy to find everything in its place. It showed me that there are still some people who treat the locations with the proper respect and that are true to the ideals of the hobby!

But before I get too carried away, I'll show you some of the photos I took there that day.
As always, please visit my website for more!

Oh, an important information about the location that I got just a couple of days ago: Apparently all the access ways have been sealed and there is no way to get in.

Sailing Away - The Video

Here's the video I edited from about 1,5 GB of material I filmed on our sailing trip on the Brigg Aphrodite from July 8 until July 17.

Enjoy!