I am at a simple nice hotel in Heidelberg, taking a course called “Statistical Bioinformatics using R and Bioconductor”. This is a true challenge, since I am not a programmer, and I am not too computer literate. But this will at least give me some foundation so I can continue learning on my own. Here is a photo of what I have been doing all day.

The course is 25 students from all over the world. They treat us well, with nice food, and snacks and drinks all day long. I will certainly learn a lot in this atmosphere.

Then I had a good friend pick me up and take me to Ladenburg for dinner. This is one of the oldest cities in Germany, founded by the Romans in 68 AD. There are some Roman ruins, but basically it is a picturesque German town on the Neckar river. There were men playing bocce ball in the sunset, and people quietly eating in the restaurants. Carl Benz was from here and there is some kind of auto museum in his honor. A beautiful sunset over the river, and kids riding their bikes around the ancient walls of this place full of history.