Urban exploration: Ecole Vétérinaire

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What a journey, really. Ecole Vétérinaire, or “horror labs”, is an abandoned vet school. Some of the buildings of the school are already reconverted to lofts or apartments but the main building is still in its former “glory”. The buildings were abandoned in 1991.

But the exploration wasn’t really the journey as access was quite easy. No sir, it’s the get away that caused somewhat troubles. I explored this building with a fellow explorer. During our investigation, we found a staircase that lead us down to the underground corridors that interconnect the school buildings. So we followed some of these underground tunnels and had the opportunity to explore some other building. Since my fellow urbexer was also a fan of rooftopping (literally, visiting rooftops and taking photographs), he went on the roof of one of these buildings.

It’s probably at that point we got spotted by some of the locals (since part of the site was already reconverted). We went back through the tunnels, ready to leave, until suddenly we heard a police helicopter. We never suspected a problem, as a police helicopter in the neighbourhood seemed a usual thing. Things got a bit more intense (as in “feeling it in my stomach”) once we figured out the heli was following us. Things became clear once we arrived at our cars, surrounded by police cars.

Of course, it was clear we weren’t copper thieves (that’s what the police suspected) with all our camera gear and tripods. So they did a quick background check and let us go.

During that day I forgot the shoe mount of my tripod. So all photographs were taken with the camera I had with me, the iPhone.

Ecole Vétérinaire

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Urban exploration: Monastère les soeurs de Dieu

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Monastère les soeurs de Dieu, an abandoned monastery was being renovated for use by a school next to the chapel. When we first entered the building we heard someone working in the chapel.

Later that day we returned, heating was on, lights were on but we didn’t encounter anyone else.

 

Monastère les soeurs de Dieu

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Adobe on Linux

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Windows 3.11 for Workgroups

Windows 3.11 for Workgroups

I agree, maybe I should elaborate that call to action a bit more. I’ve been a Windows user since Windows 3.1x (Windows 3.11 for Workgroups). I moved on to Windows ’95, ’98, Me (but like most of you, this version of Windows was a disaster), 2000, XP, Vista, 7. I have a copy of Windows 8 somewhere but I’m waiting for the patch to get the old start menu back before I even come near it.

Somewhere in college (graphic design) I got into contact with an iMac G4. I had been using Photoshop (5.5) before but it was more or less to just fool around instead of doing proper graphical work. I learned to work on both platforms (OS X and Windows) with the these tools of the trade (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.)

Adobe Photoshop 5.5

Adobe Photoshop 5.5

In a later period I took an interest in motion so I learned to use After Effects and Premiere as well. In the meantime I was studying “information management and support” in Mechelen (Belgium). So I was more or less back to Windows but still improved upon my graphical skills with most Adobe packages.

I started doing photography as well, so I added Aperture (OS X only) and later Lightroom to the Adobe stack as well. I’ve been using both platforms (Windows and OS X) side-by-side for several years. From a professional point of view however, I started working with Linux as well. You see, my current profession includes front end web development but I’m actually (from a background perspective) a so called “back end developer” – server side that is (PHP). Since most hosting servers for PHP are running Linux, it’s more or less logical that you use the same subsystem so you can mimic production environments as close as possible.

OS X is not Linux

I hear you yelling “why bother? OS X is Linux” – I don’t agree. While it might look more or less the same. BSD, on which OS X is based, is not linux. For a comparison between BSD and Linux, I’d like to point you to an article on TechRepublic. The differences become more apparent when you try to install stuff that was made for Linux in Mac OS X – often times thinks break because of certain dependencies are missing. There are systems available like HomeBrew, a package manager for OS X, but it’s still not the same as APT in Debian for instance.

Adobe, make yourself available on Linux

Since I more or less made the switch to Linux, I still need Windows or OS X for one thing and one thing only: Adobe products. It’s actually a sad situation. Because of Adobe’s policy, I’m forced to not only pay for their products, but also buy a license for an operating system I wouldn’t use if their products were available for linux in the first place.

There’s no market for Adobe products on Linux

That’s the most often heard argument from Adobe as to why they won’t port their products to Linux. Shame on you Adobe. I find it quite ignorant. The reason why they don’t believe there’s a market is that in their opinion, Linux users don’t want to pay for software which is absolute nonsense. Everyone is willing to pay for decent software, even if it’s proprietary. They apparently forgot that the OS X user market was smaller than the Windows market and even up until version 2.5 of Photoshop, it was only available for the Macintosh.

Adobe, hear me on this one. Because you can save a lot of money on free software on the Linux platform, you actually have more budget / head room to spend on software you want or need for a day to day task. Take this as an example. Because I can use Linux, free of charge, I save about 200 euros on a Windows license. Guess what? I can buy a Lightroom license instead! The money isn’t lost on some OS costs, so I can spend it on products that matter to me.

So please, make Adobe on Linux possible. I’m sure there are lots of people in the same boat as me – willing to make a complete transition to Linux, only if the Adobe suite was available as a native installation package.

Alternatives

I know there are “alternatives”. There are vector drawing packages available on Linux, there is GIMP and Darktable but if you have to be honest, if you are a long time Photoshop user, these can be hardly called alternatives. The same for InDesign, Premiere or After Effects.

Virtualized environment

You could run Windows in a virtual environment using VirtualBox for instance. But since most packages use graphics card acceleration, it becomes really slow inside VirtualBox (running a Windows version for which you had to pay again).

Wine is lovely. It lets you install and run Windows applications in Linux – but it isn’t working for most Adobe products. So that’s a no go as well.

Dual boot

You can have best of both worlds and create a dual boot system. One with Windows, to run your Adobe suite (and other Windows tools) and boot into Linux when you need to work on some website code. The problem is that while you work on some website code and need some graphics work done, you have to reboot the system into another OS, make your changes and reboot into Linux to continue development. Not very efficient.

So for now I work with all the tools inside OS X – as I think it offers best of both worlds and I just live with the compromises I have to make. But it’s not an ideal situation.

Atlantikwall, Raversijde

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I’ve recently visited an open air museum in Raversijde, Belgium which was once part of the “Atlantikwall” (German for Atlantic wall). The Atlantic Wall was a system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany as a defense against an Allied invasion.

Atlantik Wall, Raversijde

On the domain in Raversijde (Ostend) the majority of this fortification is exceptionally well preserved. The operations and strategy for the Atlantic wall from the French border up to Walcheren (The Netherlands) was managed from park “Den Brandt” in Antwerp. The bunkers are still reasonably intact and one of the main bunkers is open to visitors.

Some bunkers are inaccessible because of their protected status, functioning as a bat reserve.

During the war, the bunkers at Raversijde were easily taken by the Allied forces. Little resistance was given. The bunkers and surrounding area was property of king Leopold II of Belgium. In 1981 the domain was sold to the Belgian state which restored the bunkers to their original state, expanded the site and opened it to the public. That’s one of the reasons why the site is so well preserved.

Atlantik Wall, Raversijde

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Urban exploration: ECVB

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In 1913 construction began of a power station in Langerbrugge, Gent to fulfil the needs of additional power in the area due to the expansion of industrial zones along the Gent-Terneuzen canal.

Operation ceased, according to some sources in the 70′s. A new power station was built right next to the old one. During my visit they were already planning to remove asbestos (obvious by the asbestos warning signs). Last time I read reports that demolition already started of the old buildings. Such a shame, would’ve been a nice museum.

I walked around for eight hours at the location, that’s the reason why there are so many photographs in this post.

 

ECVB

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Urban exploration: TNT factory

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I had lots of background information about TNT factory but it seems that I lost everything. All I can remember is the this place was huge. Lots and lots of small buildings somewhere in the middle of a forest with bunkers and sand dunes in between.

They used to manufacture bullets and land mines. After about half a hour we heard a car on the domain and he kept patrolling the site. We tried to keep a low profile but were caught and got away with a warning from the land owner. Too bad, as we had only explored about four buildings and one bunker.

TNT factory

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Urban exploration: royal station II

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There isn’t a lot to say about royal station II. It’s a abandoned railroad station. The track in front of the building is still in use but the station itself is abandoned for a very long time.

King Leopold II ordered the construction of a castle in the south. It was reconverted to an hotel for the jet-set friends of the king. Royal station II was a railroad stop situated in one of the corners of the domain.

In the 50′s the hotel closed an was demolished by a fire in 1968. Only a pavilion remains and is now the club house of a golf club.

View panorama.

Royal station II

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Urban exploration: Or Blanc

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From the imagery provided by Google Earth, it was doubtful that this location was abandoned. However when I arrived with a colleague / fellow explorer Stijn, we were lucky as signs were already installed to inform the neighbourhood that the buildings were soon to be demolished.

Other than “Or Blanc” was a sugar refinery, I don’t have any more information.

 

Or Blanc

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Urban exploration: maison Belle

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If you’re following along with fellow explorers, it’s often difficult to get more background information about a location. I find the history of an abandoned place equally important as the photographs and atmosphere. Who worked there? What was it used for?

Maison Belle is such a place. A beautiful building on a very busy road, hidden by nature. Inside it’s like all those other “residential” locations. Not really my cup of tea, but I was just following along.

Maison Belle

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Urban exploration: Lingerie Héléne D.

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What’s in a name? This location (as many others) has multiple names. The “original” explorers named it “dewe” – but to some this was a clear give away to this location. So they decided to name it “Lingerie Héléne D.”

I guess the D. is a remnant to the original name. During our visit, there was indeed lingerie to be found somewhere but it was worn by Héléne remains a mystery.

 

Lingerie Héléne D

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