Tour Report: Sand-Lime Brick Factory L.

On the way back from our tour to the abandoned dialysis clinic, we had two more locations planned. The first one was an abandoned prison, which of course promised to be an interesting exploration - if we had found a way in. But at the time, that wasn't in the cards. However, six months later, I did return and had more luck - but that will be another story!

The second location was more or less a last resort, because we didn't have anything left that was en route. So we tried it out.

The place was located right next to a residential area which conveniently offered a public parking lot only a short walk from the old factory building.

As we arrived at the location, we could already see that there weren't going to be many photo opportunities: lots of trash had been dumped on the premises, the walls were covered in graffiti, and there were no windows left intact.

The fence around the area hardly deserved that name, so we could just walk onto the premises as we pleased.

We only needed about an hour until we had all the photos that we wanted, so it was a short visit. It wasn't spectacular, but at least we got to see the place before it was demolished a few yeas later.

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

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: Peenemünde Power Station

This decommissioned power plant on the island of Usedom is not an abandoned place. It is a museum. The power plant was built to supply the nearby oxygen factory with enough electricity to produce the fuel for Germany's A4 (V2) rockets. It is the last remaining complete building of the Peenemünde testing facilities and conveys the industrial character of work within the armaments projects. The entire building is designed as a freely accessible monument.

On a beautiful day in June 2020, we drove to the island together with a friend who does not partake in the hobby of urban exploration, but does have a historical interest. In the way, we made a short stop at the ruin of the oxygen factory, only to find out that it wasn't accessible anymore. It would have been nice to have another look at it, but this way, we got to the museum pretty shortly after it opened that day.

A short path leads from the parking lot to the power plant site. Among other things, a V1 (flying bomb) and a V2 are on display on the forecourt. You can also take a look at a few wagons from the former factory railroad.

Upon entering the museum, we were almost completely alone in the huge halls of the old power station, which was a blessing, because I could take photos using a tripod without people walking around in the scene. We took the opportunity and explored every accessible area of the main building before exiting again and checking out the technical building.

As the museum was populated by more and more visitors, we took some time to look at the exhibits in the outdoor area before walking over to the harbor to check out the old Juliet-Class Soviet submarine.

This was a really nice day with sunny skies, warm weather and - contrary to most of our other explorations - without the risk of getting caught by security.

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: Electrical Control A.

After we had finished our second visit to the former mineral oil works, we had actually planned to go straight back to the Husky camp. So we got in the car and drove along the lonely paths that used to connect the individual areas of the huge plant. Today, they no longer cut through a huge industrial area, but only mostly empty, steppe-like wasteland. Shortly before we left the site in the direction of the main road, we saw a group of trees and bushes on the right-hand side, behind which there was apparently another building that we hadn't even planned to see. Of course, we immediately stopped to take a closer look.

It was a classic industrial building, but its purpose was not recognizable from the outside. But the door was open, so we were able to solve this mystery quickly.

It was the control room for the power supply of the former mineral oil plant. The building was full of large control cabinets and everything needed to supply a large industrial plant with many thousands of volts. There were switches and distributors for various distillation stages of mineral oil production, for lights, sockets - and even for the street lighting!

Unfortunately, copper thieves removed all the cables from the building shortly after the plant closed - but the graffiti artists seem to have overlooked this building until now - there were no (or almost no) graffiti. Apparently, the place is rather quiet - so much so, that birds have begun to nest in the cabinets and the controls. We even found a nest that had eggs in it!

This was really a nice unplanned addition for our tour, and we got some nice photos from this place.

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

Tour Report: Mineral Oil Processing Plant A.

After going on an extensive exploration tour on my wife's birthday in May 2020, we also took a short trip to a deserted place on my birthday. But this time there were also a few huskies with us! As the CoViD rules in force at the time meant that you were only allowed to travel to another federal state with a valid reason - for example because of work - we had been given a work assignment for our vacation. Two of our friend Ebby's huskies had recently passed their breeding tests, so he had officially commissioned us to take a few photos of them.

We wanted to take these photos on my birthday, and we thought that the remains of the abandoned mineral oil plant would make a nice backdrop. The route there is quite short, so we were only on the road for about 20 minutes. The site is freely accessible and offers a few nice motifs: there are still many oil tanks of various sizes and the former pump house to be discovered.

From our parking lot, we walked out onto the grounds with the two dogs and looked around for suitable scenery to set the stage for the dogs.

After we had taken some pictures of the dogs, we took them for a short walk around the grounds before heading home, as it was very warm that day and we were out in the midday sun, which would have been too exhausting for the huskies in the long run.

Birthe and I took advantage of the good weather and drove straight back to the industrial ruin shortly after arriving at the husky farm to explore the grounds extensively.

Surprisingly, the site is not only freely accessible, but the tanks can also be climbed. Some have an external staircase, others have the maintenance ladder inside. As you never know exactly how the condition and stability of metal changes over the years, I was extremely careful, but was still terrified that something might go wrong. In the end, everything went well and I got some nice pictures.

After exploring the tank site, we got back in the car to drive back, but then spotted another building that we hadn't explored yet...but that's in the next post!

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

Tour Report: Brick Factory A.

In mid-April 2020, the coronavirus pandemic had Germany firmly in its grip. The first nationwide lockdown had been in place for around four weeks, and it was expected to last a good two weeks before the first slight easing.

It was spring - a very sunny spring with correspondingly high temperatures; Easter a week earlier had even brought a few summer days with it.

In the three weeks since our last tour, we had hardly left our yard, so we were anxious to get out of the house again. I looked for a place to go - not too far, since due to the lockdwon, we weren't allowed to leave the state - and came across a brick factory that I had visited once in 2014. The news said that the property had been sold and was soon to be developed.

So we decided to pay a revisit to this place.

It was a short drive - after just under an hour we were there and looking for a parking space. It was quickly found. There were a few commercial buildings at the eastern end of the brickworks site, and as it was Sunday, the parking lots were empty and available to us. To get onto the site, we just had to climb over a small embankment - and we were standing right in front of the brickworks' materials warehouse.

We explored the entire place with the exception of the manufacturer's villa, which was unfortunately completely locked and secured.

Due to the beautiful weather, we took our time and explored the whole site at our leisure.

I particularly liked two motifs on this trip: the materials store with the little “houses” and the room with the water basin where the clay for the bricks was prepared. The water in the basin shimmered in the sunlight in all sorts of bright colors - probably due to algae, perhaps also due to pollution or contaminated soil.

Towards the end, we met two other people who had used the beautiful day to escape the confines of the lockdown - other than that we were completely alone the entire time. It was a nice short trip and a good opportunity to get out of the house again.

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