Tour Report: The Halls of Carpets [Revisit]

In June 2020, we met up with two very good friends for a little exploring. We thought that it would be nice to pay a revisit to the abandoned carpet factory that we had first explored about a year before. At the time, we hadn't seen everything, because at some point, someone started driving around the premises with a black van, and we didn't know if it was the owner or copper thieves or a security service, so we decided to cut our visit a bit short.

Little did we know that we were going to come across that black van again during our second visit...but one thing at a time.

We met up with our friends Katto and Marco late in the morning. The parking place that we had used the first time was occupied, so we had to look for another one, and we did find one a little farther away, which was okay, because we didn't want to arise an suspicion.

We had first planned to use the access that we had found the first time, but unfortunately that ladder that allowed uns to climb over the wall was gone. So we had to find another way in. Around the side of the premises we found a construction fence through which we could easily enter the site.

From there, we made our way through the huge halls of the once flourishing carpet factory. The architecture had lost none of its appeal for me the second time around, so I really enjoyed this exploration. What's more, we found some areas that had eluded us on our first visit, but which we were able to see at our leisure this time, such as the administration building and the water treatment plant.

As we were examining the latter, the black van suddenly drove up, a door opened and a dog jumped out and ran into the building barking.

Regardless of the situation, it was a funny sight: We had hidden to the side of the hallway to avoid being spotted immediately, and the dog didn't manage to stop due to extremely slippery tiles on the floor. So he then slid on all fours down the corridor into the next room, struggling to stop as he saw us standing right there. It wasn't an aggressive dog, he was just sent in by his owner to scare us.

Of course, we went out, because obviously we had been seen, and we have made it our policy to never run away, but to approach people and be friendly.

The driver of the van was friendly as well. He asked us if we were just taking photos, which we confirmed. He was fine with that and allowed us to go on. He also asked us how we got on the premises and asked us to please close the access when we left.

This situation shows once again that if you are friendly and don't make extra work for people by running away, you usually don't have a negative experience, but on the contrary often even get permission to continue with your exploration.

So we continued our exploration for another hour or so, before we left the place on the same way he had entered it - and of course, we closed the conctruction fence after we left.

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

Tour Report: Brick Factory T.

The story of how we stumbled across this abandoned brickworks almost exactly five years ago is quite funny. A few years earlier, we had bought a small tree for our garden at a farmers' market - a "Speierling" (Cormus domestica, or sorb tree).

You have to know that our “garden” is a garage yard with lots of individual pots, and we planted the tree, which was not even half a meter high at the time, in one of these pots.

The little tree thrived magnificently and grew bigger and bigger over time. At first we planted it in a larger pot, but this eventually became too small for the tree.

We didn't have a larger pot - and as the sorb tree is one of the rarest trees in Germany (in Austria and Switzerland it is even on the list of endangered species), we wanted to place it where it would have a good and long life.

At a barbecue evening, a good friend said that there was plenty of space in her parents' garden and that they would be happy to take the tree.

So a few weeks later, we loaded the tree into our car (which was an adventure in itself) and drove towards the North Sea coast. Our friend's parents were waiting for us with a lavishly laid coffee table and even tried to fill us up with schnapps, which we gratefully declined. In any case, it was a great afternoon with lots of good conversation, and when we got talking about our hobby, our friend's father casually mentioned that there was a dilapidated brickworks just across the road.

Shortly afterwards, we set off with him (he accompanied us because he knew all the neighbors and could therefore make sure that no one called the police on us).

The brickworks was only about 5 minutes away and was really dilapidated. The chimney had either been demolished in the past or had collapsed; in any case, only a small stump was left. The ring kiln was still in good condition and had not collapsed; only some garbage had been dumped there in the past.

All that was left of the other buildings of the brickworks were a few ruined remains. Apparently the site had also been used by people at some point, who stored scrap metal and a few old agricultural machines there. In order not to try our hosts' patience too much, we only took a few photos and then headed back.

In any case, this was a nice surprice location and exploration - and our tree has since found a great new home - we still get a photo of it from time to time!

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

Tour Report: Sugar Factory R.

After spending two days in a row at a former Soviet military site, it was time to explore something non-military again. Not far from the Huskyhof where we were staying was a former sugar factory. Not far away, a promising location and good weather - so we set off. It was the ninth of a total of ten excursions we made during our vacation in November 2019.

There weren't really any decent parking spaces nearby, so we simply parked between a few cars that apparently belonged to workers from the surrounding businesses. We just pretended to be one of them. The way into the old factory building was easy - the factory grounds and buildings were wide open. We could see relatively early on that truck drivers and other people were apparently using the sugar factory site as a toilet, so we could assume that it wouldn't be a problem if we moved around there.

The factory building had undergone various uses in the decades following the Second World War, so it was no longer recognizable as a sugar factory. Nevertheless, there were many beautiful motifs - from dark cellar vaults to rooms with lattice windows and beautiful incidence of light to beautiful natural decay. There really was a lot to see!

I estimate that we spent around three hours in the building before we had seen everything - with the exception of the area that had already been converted into apartments, of course.

After we had left the building and the grounds, I wanted to try and find out more about its history.

So I simply went to the neighboring active factory site and asked one of the workers if he could tell me something about the old factory. He himself had moved in, so he had no information - but he called the foreman to him, who knew the building and its former uses. He told us a lot so that we could get a good idea of how the rooms we had explored just a few minutes earlier had been used.

So the excursion was really a well-rounded affair - in addition to the photos, there was also a little history lesson, which is always good to get the overall picture of a location.

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

Tour Report: The Halls of Carpets

In September 2019, we embarked on a short tour to explore a location not far from our hometown. I knew that the old abandoned carpet factory existed a few years before, but we had never made our way there. I had only seen a few photos up until then, but these had whetted our appetite for an architectural treat.

The drive took about two hours.

The factory buildings are nestled between a residential area, various industrial areas and a tennis club. When we arrived, we first went for a walk to look for possible entrances. We didn't really find anything that gave us easy access. But we didn't give up that easily.

We took the "hard" way in.

There was a house right next to the road near the main entrance to the factory premises. It looked abandoned, so we took a look around. The doors and windows were completely locked, but the garden wall was right next to the gatehouse. Unfortunately, the wall was too high for us to get over. We looked around the garden of the house and discovered an old ladder under a pile of leaves.

This enabled us to get over the wall. There was a small embankment on the other side, so we didn't need a ladder to climb down. 

So now we were on the site and only had to walk about 400 meters along a clearly visible path until we reached the first building and were out of sight.

As soon as we entered, we saw what awaited us - huge, empty factory halls with some very impressive architecture. The halls were so big that even the graffiti didn't really matter - they just disappeared into the vast rooms.

After we had explored about a third of the site, we discovered a former laboratory in a small building. While we were taking our photos there, a black van suddenly drove onto the site and stopped in front of a building near the laboratory.

We hid and heard someone getting out. We waited for about fifteen minutes, but no one seemed to have noticed us. As the site is huge and the buildings provided good cover, we decided to continue our exploration despite the risk.

So we saved the building in front of which the car had parked and looked at other factory buildings.

I was particularly impressed by the halls with the curved roofs, some of which looked like aircraft hangars and were flooded with daylight due to their construction.

At some point, the black car disappeared from the site again so that we could inspect the last building.

I don't remember how long we were on the site, but it was a few hours and I think it was really worth it.

We left the site the same way we had entered it and hid the ladder under the pile of leaves again.

We met the black van and the driver less than a year later when we visited the old factory again - but that story will be for next time!

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