Die Sächsische Dampfschiffahrts Dampferparade-Steamboat Parade

May 1 is a big holiday. The celebration starts the night before and continues for the weekend. It has the feel of the American Memorial Day weekend-people celebrating the end of winter. The night before we went down to our neighboring beer garden for a bonfire with music from a DJ, a BBQ and beer. They also have a disturbing tradition of burning effigies of witches on April 30th, to make sure that winter does not return. We chose not to witness that, since it touches too close to home. Trisha's family history includes one witch burning.

Another part of the celebration in Dresden is a parade of steamboats up the Elbe from the city center to Schloss Pillnitz. With a large crowd around us, we went down to the Elbe. This part of the celebration reminded me of the opening day of the boating season in Seattle and the parade of boats through the Montlake cut. In Seattle the celebration is centered around personal boats, here the celebration is centered on a remarkable fleet of historic steamships.

When we heard the steam whistles in the distance we wandered down to the shore and waited.

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The first ship was the Stadt Wehlen. Most of the ships are named after towns or stops on the Elbe. The Stadt Wehlen is the oldest ship in the fleet, 130 years old.

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Next came a ship we had never seen, the little Diesbar.

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Next came the Leipzig (pronouced Liip-tzich, a long i sound, and at the end a sound impossible to pronounce "correctly")

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Next the Dresden...

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Next the Meissen, named after the lovely town just down river of Dresden. Meissen is where the Europeans, envious of china porcelain, discovered how to make their own. Meissen still is the active heart of the local porcelain business.

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Next came the Pillnitz. All the boats would blow their steam whistles at the same time. The sound would echo off the water and hills.

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Next the Kuhort Rathen, named after the town at the base of the hill by the Bastei.

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Next the Pirna, named after the town upriver about 6 km from our villa, which makes for a nice bike ride.

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The last ship was the Krippen. We had never seen this ship before, and I know nothing about Krippen.

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A great morning. I then went up to the bakery for rolls. They were open for a few hours, but only to sell pastry. So this meant we HAD TO go back to the beer garden for Wurst and beer. We were having wurst for dinner, so as Judy commmented, this was going to be the wurst day of the trip.