Exploring the Rotten Side of Germany
You might say I'm a collector. I collect rare objects. Facts, stories...I travel the roads of Germany seeking its heart.
Featured Photo
“The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one.”
(Seneca)
The Saturday before Easter, one of my best friends was taken from us without warning.
I first met Jens back in 2013 on a spontaneous visit to "his" abandoned sanatorium - a lonely place on top of a mountain where he had chosen to live with his pack of sleigh dogs. He offered us coffee, showed us the place and told stories. The little time we had just flew by. This first meeting was special. We had immediately connected on a really cool level, and my wife and I only reluctantly left that evening. We returned a few months later, and then again...and again. Over the years, a real friendship developed. Jens and "his" mountain became the place for us to be grounded, to meet new people, learn new things - and have barbecue ;)
We felt at home there, and Jens was the reason for that.
I still can't believe that he is gone and that I won't see him anymore walking quickly over his premises, feeding his dogs, riding the sleigh or building something new.
What remains are the great memories of adventure, of long talks by the campfire at night, the hunts for trespassers trying to jump the fence and of surprising visits to cool places that nobody else knew of.
And what will remain are the friendships that developed with the people we met on the mountain. That is Jens' legacy - he brought people together. People of different ages, religions, political views. People that came because of the dogs, people that came because of the sanatorium - in the end everyone came for Jens and for all the things that made this place so unique.
Thank you, Jens, for your friendship.
Thank you for everything you gave us!
We'll meet again by the great campfire in the sky!!!
Galleries
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Depot D.
As early as 1935, a military camp focusing on arms production was built north of the town of Dünsen in Lower Saxony. The production focused mainly on ammunition for air defense and infantry. During the entire Second World War, there was no targeted attack on the "Luftmunitionsanstalt" (air ammunition factory). After the end of the Second World War, the phase of demilitarization of the institution by the British Army began. However, the Bitish did not completely destroy the ammunition bunkers. Instead, some of the bunkers were rebuilt due to housing shortages after the war and....(more)
Old Wine Inn [Revisit]
GALLERY UPDATE! New photos added taken on December 30, 2017.
There is no information regarding the use or the history of this place...(more)
Video
Lost Places | Goin' Bunkers - "The Defensive Command"
Blog
Tour Report: Weasel's Inn
Published 2019-06-23
After we had explored the abandoned inn, Pixelcracker and I still had some time left before we'd planned to go grocery shopping for the evening barbecue up on the mountain. I'd always wanted to go for a revisit of the old recreation home, but I never got the chance - up until then ;) In addition, it wasn't too far away, so that we'd have plenty of time to get everything else done as well. Parking had always been an issue at this location. There is no public parking area anywhere near it, and there was no possibility to park by the side of the streets leading up to the place. So we played the.....(more)
Urbex Feeds
Feeds from various Urbex Pages
Atlas Obscura - Latest Places
Nano Billiards Cafe in The Bronx, New York (Thu, 27 Jun 2019)
In a nondescript residential high-rise building, next to a meat market and overlooking a parking lot, a dentist’s office, and a dollar store, a padlocked door reveals nothing of the Dominican
treasures that await within.
In a fluorescent-lit basement pool hall, within a mile from Yankee Stadium, Nano Billiard Cafe serves what locals say is the best Dominican food in New York. Diners sit around a granite counter
that turns into a bar after lunch service ends, and you couldn’t fit a cue stick along the breadth of the kitchen. A pot is always simmering, stewing meats or cooking rice and beans. The air is
salty from the steam of sizzling pork. For now, the calm of cue sticks resting on their stands, billiards tables cloaked in their faux leather covers, quietly hints at the commotion that will
begin once evening falls and a steady clack of billiard balls shooting into corner pockets signals the end of chef Anita Romero’s work for the day at the lunch counter she set up 11 years ago.
The spot is mainly a takeout operation, with visitors calling in orders from all over the tristate area, hungry for the locrio de pollo (one-pot chicken and rice), cerdo con
molondrones (pork with okra), and sancocho (thick meat and vegetable soup) that are the heavy hitters of homestyle Dominican cooking. Keep in mind, though, that only what is on the
menu board resting on the counter is on offer that day. On one visit, the offerings included a buttery sancocho with nubs of plantain, carrots, corn cobs and beef floating in the tangy broth.
There was also chuleta guisada (stewed pork chops), a beef stew, and habichuelas rojas (red beans) in a peppery stew, to be eaten with forkfuls of concon, the
nutty, slightly charred bits of rice scraped from the bottom of the rice pot. A steady order of pescado frito, batter-fried fish fillets in a ginger-cilantro marinade, kept the stove hot
and greased, and the phone lines ringing.
Bite into a bacalao in wine sauce, surrender to the aroma of sofrito braising in a pan, immerse in the delights of island cooking from a little corner of the Bronx.
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