Chapter 420: The Castle That Took Four Hundred Years to Build

Xiao Peng still feels very sorry that he cannot go to Heidelberg to play.

Heidelberg is really a beautiful city. The whole city can be summarized as: 'red tiles, green trees, mountains and rivers, and blue sky'.

There's a city in China called Qingdao. The slogan for Qingdao's old town used to be "red tiles, green trees, blue sea, blue sky," a reference to its abundance of classical German-style architecture. However, with Qingdao now dominated by skyscrapers, the red tiles are a sight you can only see in the old town.

And what about Heidelberg? Almost all the buildings in the city are red-roofed Western-style buildings, with not a single modern skyscraper to be seen. Looking down at the city from a high vantage point, one suddenly feels like stepping back through centuries of history.

This is even worse than Marseille. Marseille at least has one modern high-rise building in its city center, while Heidelberg's old town doesn't even have a single high-rise building. Even if there are some new buildings, they won't be too tall and their style will be the same as the original ones.

There are many high-rise buildings named "Heidelberg" in China. I don't know if this can be considered black humor.

It's really nice to come to Heidelberg as a tourist, but it's better not to let Xiao Peng stay here.

Maintaining tradition is definitely something to be commended, but standing still is not a good thing either. Every house here is hundreds of years old. As Walter said, the apartment building where his family lives was built in 1664. No matter how much such old buildings are renovated, they cannot be as livable as modern buildings.

Just like Chen Zetao's advice to Xiao Peng against buying a castle, old buildings may look nice, but living in them is a completely different experience. Xiao Peng prefers to enjoy himself. Having spent so much time in Marseille, Xiao Peng has become almost immune to the "accumulation of time."

But he still wanted to visit Heidelberg Castle. If you come to Heidelberg, don't visit Heidelberg Castle? It's like going to the bathroom without your phone, or getting a massage but doing nothing but chatting with a girl about life. Heidelberg was originally called "Heidelberg", but later it was changed to Heidelberg because of the fame of Heidelberg Castle.

Heidelberg Castle took four hundred years to complete! It was one of the largest castles in Europe at the time, and its location atop Mount Oden overlooks the entire Oldenburg region. The views are truly breathtaking. It served as the residence of the German Emperor-elect, a massive fortification and palace. Due to its lengthy construction period, its architectural style blends Gothic, Baroque, and Renaissance, making it a masterpiece of the German Renaissance.

However, the history of Heidelberg Castle is full of tragedy, as it was caught in war.

During the Thirty Years' War, the first pan-European conflict in the early 17th century, French King Louis XIV launched the War of Orleans here. Although the candidate emperor fought hard, he was ultimately defeated. The candidate emperor's family abandoned Heidelberg Castle and moved to Mannheim.

The French, having suffered heavy losses when they captured the castle, hated it deeply. They blew it up in 1689, but the results were unsatisfactory. In 1693, they brought in more dynamite and blew it up again, this time splitting it in two. When the Emperor-Candidate returned, he wanted to rebuild the castle, spending decades and millions of dollars on it. However, in 1764, it was struck by lightning again, causing another fire that destroyed it, forcing the castle to be abandoned. The entire castle then became a "quarry" for the people of Heidelberg, who came here to move stones to build houses. Much of the building material was used to build the new "Schwechenberg Palace."

History is very interesting. It was the French who destroyed the castle, and it was also the French who saved the castle.

French Count Charles Granberg took possession of the castle and dedicated his considerable resources to its restoration. Writers like Victor Hugo and Mark Twain tirelessly promoted and beautified the site, ultimately preserving it. Today, Heidelberg Castle houses the restored Castle Museum on one side and the castle ruins on the other. It's a must-see in Heidelberg.

But Walter and Fabian firmly suppressed this suicidal idea. Hiking after a storm? What if you encounter a mudslide? What if you encounter lightning? Even a castle that's been completely destroyed twice can't withstand the lightning here. You're just going to die!

In order to completely put an end to Xiao Peng's suicidal idea, Fabian and the others came up with a "brilliant plan" to run away! So Xiao Peng saw Walter's "sassy operation".

The Mercedes-Benz Elson RV, a "walking palace," not only had a garage that could accommodate two sports cars but also an inflatable rubber boat with a motor. But the pump was on the car! So Walter inflated the boat in the car, installed the motor, added fuel, and then carried the 80-pound boat down the mountain.

As a result, not long after they had carried the speedboat and set off, it started raining again. However, Walter called his wife and went down the mountain without hesitation. His back even looked a little tragic.

"Xiao, what are you doing? Watching her leave?" Fabian teased as he watched Xiao Peng standing by the window watching Walter leave.

Xiao Peng rolled his eyes at him and said, "What nonsense are you talking about?"

Fabian sighed and said, "Okay, I'm a little worried seeing him going into the city in the rain. But don't worry, Walter and his family are different from us. No matter how good you are at fighting, you haven't received the same training as them. What's that saying? They are 'professionals'. Since he dared to go down, it means he will be fine. We just need to wait here for him to come back."

Xiao Peng shook his head, left the window, lay on the sofa, picked up the game controller on the sofa, and said lazily: "Who told you that I was worried about him?"

Fabian asked in confusion, "Then why are you looking at him so reluctantly?"

At this point, Xiao Peng suddenly sat up from the sofa: "Fabian, don't you think it's fun to play with a rubber boat in the city? Think about it. Everyone is suffering in knee-deep water, and at this time an assault boat rushes over. Wouldn't that feel so cool? How about we go and have some fun with Walter?"

Fabian's face was filled with black lines: "Shouldn't we deal with a more important matter first?"

"What's the matter?" Xiao Peng asked puzzledly.

"Don't you think we seem to have forgotten something important?" Fabian asked.

"What important thing?" Xiao Peng asked puzzledly.

Fabian pointed at his body: "Clothes!"

"Damn! I really forgot!" Xiao Peng and his companions had left on a whim, traveling from Marseille, which was over 20 degrees Celsius, to Heidelberg, which was around zero degrees. Walter and Fabian were relatively safe; they were both wearing suits, and even though they were summer suits, they still had jackets. Xiao Peng, however, had been fishing and sunbathing beforehand, wearing only a T-shirt! They hadn't felt anything the entire time in the car, but getting out would have been freezing!

Xiao Peng doesn't want to be the first billionaire in history to freeze to death.