Historic steamboats Vltava and Vyšehrad on the TV show Toulavá kamera

This past Sunday, the Toulavá kamera show aired a feature about our historic steamboats — Vltava and Vyšehrad, which are the last of their kind.

Cruising aboard a steamboat was once a popular pastime. Trips ran to Slapy and Mělník, dance evenings were held on board, and so on. Steamboats enjoyed their greatest popularity above all before the Second World War, when they carried up to 2 million passengers a year, as the feature noted.

The current appearance of the steamboats is the result of a thorough renovation that returned them to their original character. This would not have been possible without the surviving period photographs and plans.

Both steamboats were this year declared cultural monuments, so their further operation requires truly careful and regular maintenance. For example, one hour underway requires three hours of service work.

And if you are curious, say, how fast such a steamboat sails or what its consumption is, you can find that out and much more in the Toulavá kamera feature from 8 December 2013.