Picture of the week

Dresden paddle steamers

Hank,

In fact the Dresden paddle steamers are the largest steamboat fleet of the world. The oldest boat is the "Stadt Wehlen" built in 1879 followed by the "Diesbar" in 1884, "Meissen" in 1885, "Pillnitz" in 1886, "Krippen" in 1892, "Kurort Rathen" in 1896, "Pirna" in 1898, "Dresden" in 1926 and "Leipzig" in 1929. All the names are names of cities in Saxony and with the exception of Leipzig all towns are on the Elbe river.

BTW we just returned from an Elbe river cruise from Dresden to Hamburg. And of course we rode the Dresden steamers too (Pillnitz, Dresden and Leipzig). We made a shore tour to Prague where two steamboats are located (Vsyrehad and Vltava) and two sternwheel tugboats (Tyrs and Sumava both rebuilt for passenger service but diesel boats). There´s still one sternwheel diesel tugboat in operation called Beskidy which is operating out of the Czech town Decin. On our way downriver we stopped in Magdeburg where the last of the sidewheel steam tugboats is sitting high and dry as a museum. The Wuerttemberg was retired in 1974. Further downriver at the town of Lauenburg there´s the sidewheel steamboat "Kaiser Wilhelm" which is also still coal fired and operated by a volunteer crew. Lauenburg has also a nice little museum about navigation on the Elbe river including a steam engine connected with a sidewheel which is moving due to an electric motor. At Hamburg there are two Mississippi river style sternwheelers (o.k., one is totally fake) and a lot of old steamboats (no paddlewheelers). We rode the tiny "St. Georg" which is cruising the Alster river (or more a lake) and visited the steam ice breaker "Stettin". A couple of more steamboats are still operating and available for charter cruises.

Carmen

Str. AXELSBERG

Still, my favorite Euro-Steamer is the Str. AXELSBERG, from Sweden.

http://groups.msn.com/WillieandBustersWhirlwindTouroftheWorld/passengerboats.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=3012