End of Season at Zollenspieker Ferry Terminal (Hamburg, October 2016)

End of Season at Zollenspieker Ferry Terminal (Hamburg, October 2016)

Business is already slow at the ferry terminal's restaurant by mid-October. This is actually Hamburg's Southernmost point at the border line to the German federal state of Lower Saxony.

Since 1252 there has been an important ferry connection across the Elbe River which is still operating all ten minutes March through November. But until the early 19th century you had to pay customs to transport goods and stuff across the border.

And that is where the name "Zollenspieker" comes from: The customs station in those days had a bonded warehouse facility (which is a "Zollenspieker" in the old Northern-German slang).

(Olympus OM-D E-M5, f/4, 1/80, 40mm, ISO 250)