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.

Tour Report: Zoological Museum "Animal House"

We also paid another visit to the third spot on our 2019 Christmas tour during the repeat tour in January 2020. And that was a good thing, because relatively soon afterwards there was a fire in one of the buildings, which meant that the location was literally “burnt”.

Sure - it's not an extremely spectacular place, but a zoological museum with an associated taxidermist is not something you see very often. What's more, I had only taken photos with my cell phone on my first visit, so I wanted to take the opportunity to shoot a few more pictures with the big camera.

It was getting towards the afternoon, but luckily the walk wasn't too far, so we still had enough daylight. Once again, we were able to park right next to the location and were completely undisturbed while we looked at everything in peace. I used the time to photograph a few details that I had missed the first time.

In the meantime, I had researched the history of the place and it was a bit unfortunate that the exhibits were no longer there - by all accounts, there were some " wild" things there.

In any case, it was a good end to a successful tour!

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

Tour Report: Zoological Museum "Animal House"

The last location we explored on our 2019 Christmas tour of Denmark was an abandoned zoological museum. I had been tipped off about this place and told that there wasn't much left to see.

We found the location on a lonely country road in the middle of Denmark. There was one house on each side of the road. As there were no neighbors in the vicinity, we parked directly on site.

We first took a look at the smaller of the two buildings. Hanging out of an open window was a pelt that had probably once belonged to a badger. The door was open so that we could easily enter the house.

Inside, we found all sorts of things: animal skins and bones, wood, straw, jars of chemicals - and business documents. These showed that a taxidermist had worked in the house. He apparently not only made the specimens for the zoological museum, but also for private customers.

The lion we found was particularly impressive. The fur was on the first floor, but in the attic we found the almost complete frame made of wire and straw.

Equally interesting were the many empty jars of chemicals, mostly phenol and arsenic trioxide. Both are or were used in embalming and taxidermy.

After we had fully explored the taxidermist's house, we simply walked across the street. The building opposite housed the so-called zoological museum.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much left to see there because, on the one hand, a large part of the collection was sold after the museum was closed and, on the other hand, the vandals or local teenagers have of course already struck.

So the “cages” were empty with the exception of a few decorations - but you could still see that someone had obviously put a lot of effort into the museum's layout.

As it was already relatively late in the afternoon, I only took my cell phone with me to take photos. But I should be back a few weeks later for another visit, so stay tuned!

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

Tour Report: Finowfurt Aviation Museum

Our November 2019 vacation was in full swing. After we had finished exploring the ruins of the "Stasi Hotel", we used the rest of the day to pay a visit to the Finowfurt Aviation Museum (Official Website). It was already the end of November, so the days were already getting quite short and we limited ourselves to short drives in order to have enough time for photos.

The former Eberswalde-Finow airfield was only about 50 kilometers and a 45-minute drive away, so there should at least be time for a short tour.

When we arrived, we were worried whether we would even get the chance to look around - there were no cars in the parking lot, the ticket booth was unoccupied and there was no one to be seen for miles around. Of course, the peak season was long gone and it's unlikely that anyone would stray into this region on a rainy and windy November afternoon.

Although we didn't see anyone, we walked onto the grounds and actually saw a sign pointing the way into one of the buildings to buy a ticket.

The museum employee present was actually a little surprised that someone had come by. There was no one else on site either, so he apologized for not being able to offer a guided tour - but he offered us a coffee instead, which we gratefully accepted given the cold weather.

Apart from the weather, it was really nice to walk through the exhibitions completely alone. We were able to see everything at our leisure and were only limited by the fading daylight. At the end of our tour, we took a look at the exhibition in the administration building.

All in all, the museum operators have really done a great job. Both the airplanes and the vehicles as well as the other exhibits (such as the engine of a V-2 rocket) have been lovingly restored and are well preserved. The historical background is explained and emphasized in many places, so that you get a very good view not only of the history of the airfield, but of the Cold War in Germany as a whole.

I recommend a visit to this museum to anyone traveling in the region - it's really worth it!

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

Tour Report: Civil Defense Warning Station II

A friend of ours rents and operates the former "Warnamt II", a huge underground shelter housing one of ten German "Warning Offices" built for civil air defense during the Cold War. Since we were in the area during our Easter tour in April of 2019, we decided to pay him a visit and take a few photos.

Mirko really is doing a marvelous job keeping the place operational and expanding the collection of relics not just from the bunker's past, but from the Cold War in General.

We were joined on our tour by our friend Petra and her father, who was also very interested to see what had been built pretty close to his home...

We had announced ourselves a few days ahead, so we were greeted by Mirko, who immediately started showing us the bunker and explaining absolutely everything! He really is a wealth of information regarding the Cold War in general and the German warning system in particular. It's really interesting and a lot of fun listening to his stories - if you ever get the chance, check the place out!

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