FERRIES ARE PART OF THE JOURNEY

There are plenty of routes where getting there is part of the appeal. A drive along Lake Superior can be as memorable as where it leads; the same is true of a train through the Alps. Ferries are different because, for a little while, the journey becomes a place of its own.

The car is parked and left behind. Bikes are rolled aboard. People walk around, get something to eat, stand outside, watch one shore disappear and wait for another to come into view. Whether it’s a BVG ferry crossing a lake in Berlin or an overnight trip between Sweden and Finland, the ritual is surprisingly similar.

The ferry still solves a practical problem: getting people across water. But in doing so, it creates a temporary public space between departure and arrival.

And perhaps that’s what makes the ferry different. It doesn’t simply connect two places. For a little while, it creates a third one between them