Lost and Found

Whenever I drive anywhere, or am a passenger in a moving vehicle of any kind, I look as hard as I can through the trees and hope to find a gorgeous old hospital rotting away in the woods, as I did when I stumbled upon my first. This very slight chance has come to fruition two or three times since then, and this morning in Germany happened to be one of those. While on the road, I noticed a bare flag post sticking up from a wooded hill - the rust had turned the shiny metal to streaking stains of brown. A peaked roof just barely poked out of the trees... it was a fuzzy guess at best as to whether it was something explorable, but the style of architecture and its position on the top of the hill was incentive enough to drive up there to scope it out.

Huge vines hung in loops from the thick forest surrounding the buildings, and the disuse of these structures became clearly evident as we approached. The painted black words "Sanatorium" were clearly legible above one entrance with a diamond window, and my curiosity began to burn. We found a discreet overgrown path which led up to the summit, and so we began hiking...