At first, it feels like you are in a high-security enclave. High barricades bookend the infamous Herbertstrasse, sometimes called the 'street of shame'.
Then, women perched comfortably on swivel chairs come into view, dressed in nothing but stockings and suspenders, looking out from narrow shop windows. Some stick their necks out, to lure passers-by to come in or to hurl invective at tourists trying to cheekily snap a picture.
Well known for its tacky sex shops, strip joints, bordellos and casinos, the Reeperbahn in Hamburg's St Pauli district is one of the world's oldest and most famous red-light districts. Once a favourite hangout for fatigued sailors from ships that anchored at Hamburg's port, it began to draw hordes of tourists from throughout the world.
But now prostitution is slowly dying in the Reeperbahn - also known as die sundige Meile in German or 'the sinful mile' - which struggles to find a balance between tradition and modernity. The sex industry is in a terminal decline as prostitution flourishes through more modern ways - mainly through the internet, a medium that is considered both discreet and safe.
On April 1, Hotel Luxor, the Reeperbahn's oldest brothel located on a narrow side street called Grosse Freiheit, shut its doors for good. Waltraud Mehrer, a blond-haired petite woman who was Luxor's madam for more than two decades, sighs at the economic imperatives which have closed it down.
'It's a sad development,' she says. 'You just can't make enough money in the Reeperbahn anymore. Private call-girl services and internet sex ate into our business.'
In the 1970s, when the Luxor did brisk business, it was a 24- hour-a-day operation. But in the months leading up to its closure, it was barely open for four nights a week.