Saxon Steamboat Company

For more than 170 years visitors to Dresden, he capital city of Saxony, have enjoyed cruises by steamboat on the River Elbe. The steamboat company, Elbdampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft was formed in 1836, and its successor company offers a selection of cruises of varying lengths, some going upstream to the region of sandstone mountains known as the Saxon Switzerland, some downstream towards Seusslitz near Meissen. The company operates nine paddle steamers, the most recent of them built in 1929, and four more modern vessels. The “Diesbar” of 1884 is still coal-fired and is designated a technical monument. Her engine was built by John Penn & Co of Greenwich, London, and drives a crankshaft supplied by Friedrich Krupp of Essen.