When we met up with Henk, we discussed three possible destinations for the following day. We woke up bright and early and headed out with the intention of returning to our hotel to check out after our first stop. We arrived at the first place, an abandoned chateau, just after 7am. It involved a bit of a stroll through the woods that was made a bit more challenging due to the lack of light and rainfall from the previous evening. We made our way inside, did a quick walk through, and then waited for daylight so that we could begin taking photographs. This chateau also had multiple floors and a grand staircase. It also had a multi-story atrium in the centre with the wrought iron railing still intact. There was an extremely large multi-paned skylight above it. Miraculously, only 1 pane was broken. It certainly made for some dramatic lighting. There seemed to be a lot of marble bathrooms with the majority of the fixtures intact. Our goal was to finish up by 11am, return to the hotel to pack up, and then continue on our way.
Our next location was a villa. It was in rather poor shape. The only room of great interest was a former library that still contained books and documents. Did I mention that they were mostly heaped on the floor? And in this instance, the staircase was not so grand.
Our final destination was a large site that appeared to be a former cold-war era government or military office building. It sat behind a large iron gate. It was three stories tall with long hallways and also had a multi-story atrium. Empty offices faced onto the atrium. Only one section of railing remained intact. There were many rooms that still contained many banks of empty shelving. We also found many stacks of decaying binders piled up on the floors of other rooms. By the time we were done, the iron gate outside had been chained and padlocked shut. Oops. Luckily there were a set of bars that had been previously pried apart by other explorers that allowed us to slip out.
Henk stayed with us for dinner and then we parted ways. We thanked Henk for graciously spending the day with us and we promised to keep in touch. Until we meet again!
Cess
A dramatic ceiling skylight from an abandoned chateau:
Looking down through the atrium's decorative covering:
Looking up from the main floor:
Matt taking a photo in the library of an abandoned villa:
I found some Ilford film and empty developer bottles in a cold war era office building:
