Cremer and Breur, Cologne

This was a halted demolition project, once someone realised it was a protected monument building. Way to go! Anyway, it made pipes and tubes, so it was kinda cool. Lots of rails and things that roll around, including an internal electric tram! Some tunnels under the ovens and kiln topped this place off.

Some things in Cologne

Met up with Lichtbringer from urbexforum.com, and he showed me a couple of places. Can't remember the name of the first place, but it was pretty cool, lots of nice things growing in pools of muck, and still partially active. Unfortunately we hit a stroke of shit luck and got seen by a guard from the neighbouring construction site, hence missing out on an air raid shelter (damn) and some other good bits. Ah well, at least he didn' call the cops

1) Decay
2) Some place, some where...
3) Crane hall
4) Pipe Organ
5) Space

The plus side of staying in a 2 star hotle in the toxic waste part of town, Leipzig

Nothing too amazing, just one of very many trashed out buildings in Leipzig. It was pretty big though, 3 seperate warehouse/office complex joined together. Go there if you like brick warehouses and stacks and things. I've got a feeling there is a decent size drain under there too somewhere, but tent pegs don't lift sealed manholes, and I don't fit through the grille at the outfall. Something scared the shit out of me in this spot, sounded like a massive beam or something collapsing, making the most shit awful noise, especially cos I was on the top floor at the time. After hearing the sound a second time, I booked it quick. The place stayed up, I guess it was some noise from one of the active places down the road, though it sounded as though it came from in my building, but I have no idea what the sound was.

Bridgerooms and Drains, Dresden

Dresden is a nice city, heres some proof! That bridge room was loud as hell, freight trains rumbling over head. The drain photos suck because it was starting to rain so I just did a quick run up, I'll probably never go there again, so this is as good as it gets. The drain it self was a nice bluestone base and walls, with a redbrick arch, very Melbourne like. I named it the Dresden Parapet, cos of the overflow protection bit, it looks kinda like a castle, and there is a big gate they lower to stop the poo getting into the river. The sewer is behind where I was standing. Sewer fresh in Dresden anyone? Unfortunately i only had the volleys on, and I'm dirty, but not that dirty.

Deep Level and Up Above, Berlin

Names and locations have been ommited to protect the guilty, the players know who they are. Thank you Berlin, I will be back for more, enjoy the photos.

1) The Hallways of Always
2) Shadowpuppets
3) Under
4) and Above
5) Colours!

Brewery

Up the road (sort of) from the school, is this place. Unassuming from the outside, an incredible find on the inside. First we got into the old boiler room, it and the whole place were pretty trashed. Then across the boiler room roof and into the rest of the place. And a place it was. Room after room, level after level, beyond trashed. Barely an intact window, graff on everything, arson attacks, warped floors, it was definitely not dull. It must have been one hell of a place in its day though. No less than four basketball courts, multiple gymnasiums, one and what looked to be another bowling alley, and a fucking underground swimming pool, complete with black, very long dead fox water. All this spread across eight or nine levels, along with a maze of storage areas and stone floored, vaulted brick ceiling basements. I had a shit day of photo taking which sucks, cos this place didn't.

1) Under the boiler

2) Slightly burnt storage area

3) Bowling alley

4) Bad photo of the pool

5) One of many basketball courts

Old School

Well, it was. After meeting up with some Berlin explorers, we set off. How to get into locked courtyards? Buzz people in their apartments until one of them lets you in. Nice. The school itself was locked up hard on ground level, but someone was nice enough to leave a window open on the second story above an eave. Old doors make good ladders. That was the most exciting bit of this topside, there was nothing left in the way of furniture, but there was a nice roof cavity.

Post and Telephone Exchange House, Berlin

Love peeling lead paint? Of course you do, who doesn't? Love the possibility of stirring up asbestos dust? Just tell me you don't. Here is a piece of 1920's Berlin, a large Telephone and Mail Exchange, according to the old guy I met inside the place. I saw him walk up to the fence and duck under, so I thought, shit, when in Berlin. After a quick chat about the place, we parted ways to explore on our own. Not much of interest was left in terms of equipment, but there wasn't too much vandalism, except for the lack of windows. I don't know if the place had been hit during the war, or if it had been fixed up since and then abandoned. I suspect the latter, given the lack of bullet damage, the surrounding areas buildings that haven't been fixed up have quite a lot of holes in them, including the grave yard over the road. I went there yesterday, but I went back this morning, no camera, just taking in the place. Enough bullshit, look at the photos

NSA post, former West Berlin

You have probably seen it before, but I went there today, so here it is again. Located in the former English occupied zone atop a hill in West Berlin, this American listening post was aimed straight at the Russians during the cold war. Nowadays, it's in a pretty sad state, all the windows are smashed, graffiti everywhere, and the copper cutters have just totally fucking wrecked the place. After reading a report on 28DaysLater forum, I thought there might be a guard, so I spent most of my time being as ninja as possible. After hearing some voices, I decided to hide in the top dome, no where to hide if I did get busted, but at least I would have photos of the best bits. I spent about an hour up there playing with the echo, and I wish I could describe the sound in there. Standing in the middle of the dome and talking or whistling or doing anything would result in this cool echo that bounced around 5 or 6 times and faded out. In fact, the whole place had a weird sound, in the photos you can see the highest dome has bits cut out of it, and the wind flowing through there made this unreal sound, like thunder almost, but it just kept going the whole time. On the way down I spotted another guy just walking around, so I figure the place must be kinda chill. Then, from another rooftop, I saw an old couple walking around the base of the domes just talking. At that point I realise theres probably a gaping hole in the fence I missed, or a gate open or something. The areas that would have housed all the equipment are beyond fucked, it's totally impossible to tell what was where, what areas were for, or anything. I guess I would have spent about 5 or 6 hours up there though, it was a very cool place to explore.



Photos:
1) A nice old wooden ceilinged room
2) Inside the top dome, I need wide angle or fish eye, it was hard to capture the siye of this place
3) One of the smaller domes, the city with the TV tower in the background
4) Domes
5) More domes

Goodbye Copenhagen

Yes, the last lot of Copenhagen goodness. A trip back there is a must, but for now, one nice, big, old building with a very cool roof. They used to build ships (little ones) in here back in the day, now it's an artist hangout, antique market and storage area. The big hall where the main construction took place now houses some shipping containers, a couple of little sailboats, and a guard living in one of the boats. For some reason the door was open (Cheers Copenhagen!) again, so me and Shining did some serious ninja stealth manouvres behind some shipping containers, and up some pigeon shit encrusted stairs to survail the supposed survailer. He wasn't asleep but he wasn't walking around either, excellent. Plastic cups are so god damn loud when stepped on its ridiculous. But it's all good, so we go back down the stairs and climb a 3 metre wall to look into the antique market. Back down and back outside, we head for the main objective: the roof above. The climb was fun, 7 or 8 metres up a blank wall, monkey style on a I beam that was slightly sticking out of the wall, but at least there was a fan unit 4 metres up for an extra foothold and a quick rest. Then the roof, shitty old wooden ladders and catwalks, and the roof sagged and wobbled in some dodgy spots. The roof was biiiiig, lots of spaces to explore, and some apartments that would be seriously cool to live in. More beers, more photos. A very good night, cheers Shining!

Photos
1)Copenhagen Harbour
2)Above the Antiques, can kinda see the big hall roof in the background
3)From the big hall roof, The City Never Sleeps

More, More, More

Went out on my lonesome today, 20/8/008, after getting a map off Jan. A beautiful paint factory was waiting for me. Again, an open gate led to an open door, but the place was still spotless. Only the things that could be used elsewhere were gone, it was other wise intact with a few holes in the roof, letting the rain in. No graff, no broken windows, just perfect. This place was an absolute pleasure to explore. Pipes, vats, old scales, and more pipes, this place was great. I spent almost 2 hours there just looking around. It wasn't very big, but it was very, very cool. Cheers Jan!