Zollenspieker is a place where a river crossing has been important for a very long time. The name comes from the old customs post, the Zoll, that stood here to tax traffic crossing the Elbe, and the little ferry that carries cars, bikes and walkers across to Hoopte on the south bank still runs, a short, unhurried journey of a few minutes. A half-timbered inn stands beside the landing stage, one of the oldest in the region, with a thatched roof, low beams and a terrace facing the river. It is a place where Hamburgers come for coffee and cake on fine Sundays.
The dike is the best place from which to view the scene. The grass bank rises several metres above the fields, with a path along the top, and from it you look out across the broad, brown river with its sandbanks, its reed beds and its slow procession of barges. On the landward side lie the Vierlande, a country of market gardens and nurseries, where flowers, vegetables and strawberries grow in the rich silt, and brick farmhouses with thatched roofs stand among orchards. In spring and summer the colours are bright, and roadside stalls sell what the gardens produce.
The Elbe is a tidal river here, and the water rises and falls by a metre or more, which shows in the mud flats and the wet lines on the pilings. Storm floods have swept over the dikes in the past, notably in 1962, and the river is carefully watched. A walk along the dike at dusk, with the lights coming on across the water and the sound of gulls, is a quiet pleasure.
Riding here is flat, open and slow. The dike road is narrow and often one-way for cars, with speed limits and a lot of cyclists, and the tarmac is rough in places. Wind is the main factor, and on a cool day it will find every gap in your clothing. Weekends in summer see heavy traffic and queues for the ferry, so go on a weekday if you can. Stelle, about four kilometres away, has fuel stations and supermarkets, and Winsen a few kilometres farther has more. Bring a camera for the light on the water, particularly at the end of the day, when the sun drops behind the far bank.