Tour Report: Porcelain Factory "Souvenir"

As I've said - we had two abandoned porcelain factories on our list for that day. After we'd finished exploring the first one, we grabbed a quick snack before getting on the way to the second one. It was a route of only about 100 kilometers, so we didn't expect it to be a too long drive.

What we hadn't accounted for was that the route took us through the mountains which meant that we got stuck behind a truck more than once and had to wait to be able to pass it somewhere on the winding road. So this was already a bit of a nuisance. But when we got to a full closure only five minutes before reaching our destination, we were really annoyed, because we had to take a detour of about thirty kilometers.

Well, alright. So we took the detour - again along winding mountain roads, so it was an additional half an hour before we even got close to the porcelain factory.

The factory was on the edge of town at the end of a residential street. There weren't any inconspicuous places to park, so we parked the car a bit further down the street, so we may have just been tourists that went for a walk in the picturesque little town. We got our gear and walked up to the old factory building. Finding a way onto the premises was easy - but to get to the access into the building, we had to fight our way through a lot of vegetation, thorn bushes and over old timber.

As we finally entered the building, we were really disappointed. The first room that we entered was a typical industrial ruin in which people had dumped a lot of trash, old chairs, electrical appliances, used clothes and torn fabrics. Only a few molds pointed to the former use of this factory.

So with only little hope, we went on to explore the rest of the building.

Only a few rooms later, our disappointment had vanished and made room for enthusiasm. There was fantastic decay, many old relics to be discovered and in the end, this place was even better than the other factory that we had explored only hours before.

The afternoon sun made for a fantastic light in many of the rooms, and only the fact that we had a reservation for dinner and still had a "few" kilometers to drive was reason enough to get us to leave at some point.

This truly was a great location to explore, and although parts of it were already collapsing, I hope that there will be the chance for a revisit in the future.

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

Tour Report: Porcelain Factory S.

This was the first abandoned porcelain factory that we ever explored. It was the fifth day of our summer vacation 2018, and we had decided to check out two abandoned porcelain factories that were roughly in the area. Roughly in the area meaning that from the place where we had spent the night, we still had to drive more than 150 kilometers to the first location.

It was a hot summer day (just like every summer day that year was a hot day), and the sun was burning down as we arrived at the old factory. There was something like a public parking spot not too far away, from which we could see the wide open gate that would lead us onto the premises. Pretty close was a neighbor with a lawnmower going in straight lines back and forth, so that when we went into the direction of the factory, he might see us upon entering, so we stayed out of sight while getting our gear ready, when suddenly a large truck pulled up and parked right between us and the factory gate...

We waited what would happen. There was nothing written on the side of the truck, so we couldn't see if maybe the guy even had something to do with the old factory or was just there to take a break and have lunch. Well, I went up to him and asked him if he knew anything about the factory. He said that he didn't and was in fact just having lunch. Whew! So we wouldn't be bothered by him, leaving only one challenge - evading the neighbor.

So as the neighbor had finished one row of mowing and had just disappeared behind his house, we hurriedly walked past the truck and through the gate to be able to disappear behind some high bushes in the factory's courtyard. It worked nicely. We just needed some time to find a way in, because a lot of the doors and windows were nailed shut

When we had finally discovered an open access, we first found ourselves in the workers' locker room. The smell of old shoes and clothes was still in the air as I unpacked and set up my camera. Starting in the locker room, we tried to find a good way through the various parts of the building, but the place was somehow contorted, so it was hard to find "the" correct way, and we were frequently entering rooms that we had passed already.

The place was pretty big, and there were so many scenes to be shot! Some rooms and halls looked as if they'd only be abandoned for a short while, whereas others displayed incredibly colorful decay that supported that fact that the place had been abandoned for more than twenty years. It also surprised us that there was relatively little vandalism and graffiti - not that we would complain about that!

I don't think that we've seen everything that this place has to offer, but we still had the second porcelain factory on our list, so when we thought that we'd explored most of the place, we called it a day and went back to the car to drive the 100 kilometers to the next location - 100 kilometers that turned out to be longer than we thought due to construction work and detours en route...so stay tuned for the report of the adventure that followed...

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

Tour Report: Hotel "Teddybear" [Revisit]

Six weeks between two explorations can feel like an eternity, but somehow nothing came up in the time before our summer vacation in 2018, so we were really looking forward to eight days of touring and exploring.

The first spot that we visited, was an abandoned hotel in the mountains that I had visited a year earlier with our friend Pixelcracker. I really liked it at the time, and since my wife wasn't with us at the time, it was a great chance for her to get a good look at the place.

We parked a long way down the street, so we'd look like all the other tourists and hikers that populated the small town during the summer season. We took the hiking path into the forest behind the hotel, so the neighbors wouldn't see us approaching. When there were no people around, we left the path, found the opening in the fence and quickly walked toward the building. The access that I had taken the year before was still open, so we didn't have to run around the property looking for another way in, and we got inside without being seen.

I was surprised that nothing much had changed since my first visit. Of course, some things had been decorated, other things had been stolen and there also was a bit of vandalism - but it was far from what other locations had to suffer over the same period of time. I guess we were lucky. The photos from the place that I have seen since then, show that the location really has changed. More vandalism, massive decorations, and more decay due to broken windows and open doors.

We took our time exploring the whole place, and I was glad that we were the only ones there during the entire time. After about two hours, we climbed back out and tried to get back to the path without being seen. It worked out nicely. We shortly thought about also visiting the other abandoned hotel that we passed on the way back to the car, but decided against it, because we were expected for a barbecue at our friend's place, and we still had to get some groceries.

This exploration was a really nice start for our vacation, and I am glad that I got to see the place again before it got more and more vandalized.

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

I also made a short video of our explore, that you can check out here:

Tour Report: Hotel "Porphyrite" [Revisit]

Over the past couple of years, it became a tradition for us to celebrate my birthday by exploring a few abandoned places. On my birthday in May 2018, we were accompanied for this tour by our good friends North Urbex and Lichtbeschatter.

We had met the day before at one of our favorite places (actually THE favorite place), and we'd had a great evening with a few more friends as well as beer and barbecue. The next morning, we started with a hearty breakfast, and then we drove off to do some exploring.

Since we didn't want to drive too far, we had opted for two locations that my wife and I had visited before, but that were nice enough to go for a revisit.

The first location that we visited, was an abandoned hotel. My wife and I had visited it about ten weeks before, but at the time, it was raining cats and dogs, so we were happy to get another chance while the sun was shining - and shinig it was; it was the perfect weather for a birthday expploration.

Since my wife and I had been to the place before, we had no trouble finding an inconspicuous place to park, and we knew how to get in. The access was still the same, but it felt a bit more unsafe than the first time, because more of the floors had collapsed and were hanging loosely above us during our entry...

Still, a lot of the place was still in good condition and offered us a lot of nice photo opportunities. Our friend Lichtbeschatter does love detail shots, so it took a bit longer than the first time until we had walked through the entire place, but it was really worth it.

I think that we will be returning at some point to check out how the decay has developed in the two years since our visit - I can't wait :)

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