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Home Page > Travelogues > Germany > Baden-Württemberg > Heidelberg Area > Wiesloch

The town of Wiesloch is deceivingly big, because it is deceivingly spread out and multifaceted.  It is a large industrial town, sprawling suburb, and wine city, while also having the appearance of just another regular southwest German town.  It's also quite a popular town for Americans who want a little more elbow between themselves and their neighbors than the usual German towns allow.  

Wiesloch's landscape is very hilly, with its downtown sunk in a valley and the suburbs lining the hills around it toward upper Nussloch.  As with Nussloch, Wiesloch's suburban areas are made of single-family or large dual-family houses as opposed to row houses.  Portions of the valleys are in fact vineyards, and Wiesloch does boast a couple quality local wines that area restaurants serve.  I've tried a few of them myself -- pretty good.

Wiesloch's industrial area is very large.  The train station (which the town shares with neighboring Walldorf) is positioned far to the outside of town just for that reason -- it serves primarily to bring workers to/from the factories.  As large as the industrial zone is, it doesn't contribute to an industrialized flavor downtown (in other words, there's no smog).

I really like Wiesloch's downtown.  It has a lot of character, and it is very clean.  The pedestrian zone is very long for such a town -- probably three blocks long with a number of alleys.  There are a number of restaurants and specialty houses along the way.  The town hall square is really big and has several cafés.  On this day was heavily crowded with people.

Wiesloch is an ideal outdoors location, too, as it has a huge town park and is near a large forest on the ridge line with dozens of walking trails.  For those who really do want to get away from the center of town, there are three small and secluded villages (at least, there may be more) in Wiesloch's footprint that all seem quite nice and brand new.

Some things to look for:  The Freihof, in the center of downtown, is a beautiful old-fashioned guesthouse, wine cellar, and restaurant.  The Old City Wall follows all the pedestrian district -- one full section of it is next to a children's playground.  With so much going for it, it's no wonder Wiesloch is regarded by some of my colleagues as a nice place to live.

Page last updated 01 September 2006 -- (C) 2002 Tom Galvin