Walee and Wolfgang

Page last updated October 2013

This place is divided for:
After more than 6 years commuting between Raleigh NC and New Orleans LA married on June 22, 1999, at Wake County courthouse in Raleigh, NC.
Moving to Heidelberg in fall 1999 for sentimental reasons.
Wolfgang was writing software (linear algebra, optimization, data mining, NN and SVM) for SAS Institute, Cary NC, from 1986 until 2007.
Wolfgang retired in 2007 and is now working on his own software, the interactive matrix language CMAT.
Walee now works at the Medical Center of the University of Heidelberg.

Small Map of Heidelberg

Parts of the City of Heidelberg

Coat of Arms of Heidelberg

Ein Rundgang durch die Stadt Heidelberg.

The picture shows our house in walking distance to Castle and Old Bridge located on the steep slope of the Gaisberg with its famous tower on top (see also the linked information). The city of Heidelberg hosts the oldest German University now rated as "Excellenzuniversitaet" and founded in 1386. Heidelberg hosts the largest number of PhD's in Germany in relation to the number of people living there. The two hills on the right side of the picture are the "Koenigstuhl" (with the castle and the historic mountain railway) and the Gaisberg. The hill on the left river side is the "Heiligenberg" with it's famous "Philosophenweg" and with the "Thingstaette" and the remains of the Carolingian Michaelisbasilika (erected in 870) on top. The old city on the right side of the river is cut by a few parallel streets. Except for flooding, the fastest route for passing Heidelberg by car is close to the right river shore. The street passing through the center of the old city, Hauptstrasse (Main Street), is reserved for pedestrians (and law neglecting bikers). The next to the right is Ploeck, which is the domain of bike riding students. The last on the right (along the forrest on the steep mountain range) is Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage, running through two tunnels, with the longer one piercing the Koenigstuhl underneath the castle, the shorter piercing the Gaisberg. The former EMEA office of SAS Institute is the large building at almost the same height on the other side of the river Neckar. The SAS Germany "Haarlass" office are the red roofed buildings close to the river slightly below the monastery Neuburg in the upper left corner. There, in 1810 C.M. v. Weber did some work on the opera "Freischuetz". The "Wolfsschlucht" is located a few miles further up the Neckar valley at Zwingenberg, see also the sketch by Erwin Bindewald). This is almost halfway upward the beautiful Neckar valley from Heidelberg to Heilbronn, bordered by about twenty old castles. Only a few miles downward from Heidelberg the Neckar is entering the river Rhine at Mannheim. The river shore on the left lower corner shows lots of sunbathing topless women. (Sorry, guys, if you miss some pixels.)

The old city of Heidelberg as seen from the Philosophenweg.
In our close neighborhood we have two famous streets, the "Weinstrasse" and the "Burgenstrasse". The "Weinstrasse" goes along the river Rhine touching many great Wineries. Parts of the "Burgenstrasse" run through the Neckar valley touching a string of castles between Mannheim and Heilbronn as shown on this map. A cupper plate on one of the three castles in Neckarsteinach refers to a tale that the old "Nibelungenlied" was written here. Maybe you also have the time to stop at the castle of Hornberg where the famous Goetz von Berlichingen, the "Knight with the Iron Hand" died. In the very early 16th century he was involved more or less against his will in the uprise of the farmers. Traveling by car from Heidelberg to Heilbronn through the Neckar valley you should definitely stop at the castle and sleepy town of Hirschhorn, the old place of Mosbach, and the "Kaiserpfalz" in the quiet town of Bad Wimpfen, place of the red bearded Hohenstaufen Emperor and crusader Friedrich I. Barbarossa, who was probably the most influential German emperor after Karl den Grossen. He, Barbarossa, died as a crusader and his empty toomb is at the Dom of Speyer. The absolute favourite of our visitors from the USA is Bad Wimpfen. Bad Wimpfen is also known as the place where the German emperor Friedrich II. one grandson of Barbarossa locked up his son, the king Heinrich VII. of Germany, who was then jailed in Heidelberg and Sicily. If you find the time you should defintely drive into the valleys of the Jagst and Kocher rivers which both end into the Neckar close to Bad Wimpfen and the towns in those valleys are full of that 15th to 16th century history of Goetz von Berlichingen. The famous 340 km long Kocher-Jagst bikeway goes first along Kocher and returns along Jagst to the same place where it starts. Here is a list of links for all bikeways in Baden-Wuerttemberg and here one of all of Germany.
Some etchings of the castle and city of Heidelberg by M. Merian in 1645: Some etchings of the castle of Heidelberg by Ch. Haldenwang in 1815 At that time there was only one, the old bridge across the Neckar. Further up- and downward, ferries were used to cross the river. City map of Heidelberg in 1840. Later a second Neckar bridge was added as shown here at the 1911 painting by Sophie Meyer a painter living in Duesseldorf (1847-1921). The last ferry boat river crossing in Heidelberg ended in the 1960's. Now there are three (or four) bridges across the Neckar and ferries only much further up the river Neckar. Here is some more info about Heidelberg

A few favorite links...

Some German Links

Some More Pictures:

[W&W in Bangkok]

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