Chapter 133 Castle 1

The architecture of Fort William is very beautiful. Most of its buildings are not tall castles, but relatively low wooden houses like in fairy tales.

The pointed roofs, towering chimneys, uneven stone roads, neatly trimmed lawns, and short walls that are only as high as an adult's knees all look like scenes from a fairy tale.

But the weather was as gloomy as usual, and the mountains in the distance were covered with snow.

Fortunately, it was the off-season, and these hundreds of people almost covered most of the homestays.

Yes, all the houses you can see in Fort William are hotels. It is a very mature tourist distribution center.

The lunch looked good. After all, I had been on the train for more than three hours and was still hungry. There was lobster baked in cream, mussels braised in red wine, and tomato pasta.

It turned out that it only looked delicious. The lobster and mussels were really hard to describe. It was a waste of such good ingredients. At least the pasta was decent and could fill Zhang Wei's stomach.

Logically speaking, Fort William is right next to the North Atlantic Ocean, with abundant seafood, so seafood should be a relatively common ingredient. Unexpectedly, it is still so unpalatable. It seems that the curse of British food being unpalatable cannot be broken.

Fort William is only two kilometers away from the foot of Ben Nevis, but the guide did not rush everyone to start climbing. He finally told them the process of the trip.

This afternoon they will have to undergo a physical fitness test in Fort William before they can proceed with the next activities, and tomorrow they will need to hike to the foot of Ben Nevis to take a treetop adventure test.

"Treetop adventure?"

"Shall we go climb a tree?"

"Climb a tree? Let the ladies climb a tree? Let the boys do it!"

Everyone was obviously very surprised to hear about the "Treetop Adventure" project, but the team leader was unmoved:

"If anyone fails the physical examination today, they don't have to participate in anything and can go back to London directly!"

"Teacher, in that case, will the practical credits for this semester be added?"

"Good question, of course not!"

Only then did the crowd explode in excitement. Whether they wanted to go was one thing, but whether they could go was another.

"Besides, since you are the first female class to be admitted to Devon, I don't want to hear about things that boys can do but girls can't!"

"If you don't think you're equal to boys, why did you come to Devon to study? It's not too late to drop out!"

The leader teacher's words were extremely rude, and the girl who had just said this turned pale and lowered her head.

After arriving at Fort William, boys and girls did not live together, and physical examinations were conducted separately.

However, Zhang Wei thinks that most people will not have big problems. After all, almost half of the time in school is spent on the sports field. Even Zhang Wei feels that his calves and thighs are beginning to grow muscles, which was not so obvious when he trained at home before.

Sure enough, the examination was completed three hours later. Only two students needed observation due to heart problems, and all others passed.

Then the teachers asked them to cherish the time tonight and explained that difficult times would come in the days to come.

When Zhang Wei was sorting out her homework, she found that one of the assignments had to be completed on the top of a mountain, because they needed to go to the top of the mountain to record climate change data at three time points, namely 7 a.m., 12 noon, and 5 p.m.

Then she carefully looked at the previously saved information about Ben Nevis and found that one of the hiking trails was dug out because of scientific research.

Although Ben Nevis is only 1,345 meters above sea level, the temperature is relatively low due to its high latitude. Part of the top of the mountain is covered with snow all year round, and some places are even permanently frozen. It is not easy to carve a route.

At that time, the Scottish Meteorological Society chose the highest peak in the UK to establish a meteorological observation station in order to study the causes of severe weather.

In order to make observations, meteorologists had to spend four consecutive months crossing strong winds, heavy rains and blizzards to reach the top of the mountain to collect data. It was very difficult. I heard that Queen Victoria even made a donation to support the establishment of the meteorological observatory.

So Zhang Wei was not surprised to see these tasks in her homework. However, if calculated based on this time, wouldn't they need to stay on the top of the mountain for a whole day, not including the time it takes to climb to the top?

With the current temperature, Fort William is about 10 degrees Celsius, and the top of the mountain may be below 5 degrees Celsius. Looking at the white top of the mountain, Zhang Wei feels that this trip will not be easy.

Before dinner, Zhang Wei and her friends were allowed to stroll around the town and go look for the castle.

Fort William is called a castle because there is a huge abandoned castle nearby, right by the lake. Half of the castle wall has collapsed, and the color of the wall is very mottled. It looks a bit weird against the twilight, which is very consistent with the atmosphere of Western horror stories.

"Will there be bats in there?" Butch asked, shrinking his neck.

Originally, Zhang Wei wanted to go out for a walk by himself, but then again: since I’m already here.

As soon as they went out, they met Queenie and the others. Before they even left the B&B, the group had grown to nearly twenty people. In addition to the twelve of them, there were other classmates in the inn, so they all went out in a mighty group.

The teacher who lived with them only asked them about their destination and let them go, only reminding them to come back before dinner.

Zhang Wei was forced to become the guide, although she only found the map of the town at the front desk of the B&B.

There is a four or five meter wide stone bridge leading to the ancient castle by the lake. The lake is as quiet as ink. There is no other sound except the footsteps of their group. So when Butch was speaking, the evening breeze blew and several girls shivered.

"No matter what's inside, I still want to go and take a look."

Zhang Wei said that it was really too far away and the sky was a little dark, so it was hard to see clearly.

Although the castle is in ruins, it has a good location, at the highest point by the lake. The view of the entire valley must be beautiful from there.

"Maybe there really is Count Dracula in there!"

"It would be a good opportunity to verify the legend of William Castle. I hope I can actually see the handsome Count Dracula, the Vampire Prince!"

Hearing them talking about it, Zhang Wei suddenly remembered that Jay Chou had also sung about this William Castle in his song. Could it be this place? Then he had to go and find out!

Not to mention, after someone told this legend, everyone wanted to go and see it even more. The young girl's curiosity overcame her fear.

In this way, everyone walked slowly across the bridge, but when they reached the middle of the bridge, Zhang Wei heard a sound coming from the castle, and she stopped immediately.

"What?"

Tracy saw her stop and stopped walking too and asked.