Chapter 201 - In Palo Alto & San Francisco (1/2)

After breakfast, Finland prepared herself to commute to her office, but Caspar insisted on driving her. The hotel immediately prepared a car equipped with a car seat and soon they were driving to Finland's office in the Financial District.

”Thank you for taking me,” Finland said, kissing Caspar's cheek and getting out of the car. ”Are you going to the hotel to work?”

”Maybe tomorrow. Today I want to look at our house in Palo Alto first,” Caspar said.

”Alright. Just let me know what you're up to. I'll go to work now.”

When Finland entered the building, Caspar immediately drove his car to the south. He very rarely came to San Francisco. You could say that for the past 20 years he had never set foot on this region. When he went to the state of California, he preferred to stay at the warm San Diego or Los Angeles. San Francisco was too cold for his taste.

But over time, Stanis bought and added assets, and eventually Caspar was not able to keep up with which properties he had, including this mansion in Palo Alto and the vineyard in Napa Valley.

The properties that he bought out of his own will because he liked them could be counted with all his fingers. One was the beautiful house in Seattle that he bought three years ago to give to Finland, another was Rose Mansion in Singapore, then his neighbor's house in New York – mostly because of the noisy residents, so they could never again play loud music and disturb his peace, and several other buildings.

Once, when he went to South Africa, he saw a beautiful colonial house in Pretoria. He loved the building so much so he called Stanis to take care of the purchase. To his utter surprise, Stanis told him that the house already belonged to him for a few years. He really did not remember; and to this day he and Stanis still laughed about the incident.

That was why, whenever Caspar arrives in a new city, he preferred to contact Stanis in advance and ascertain what assets he had in the area. Caspar had lived like this for hundreds of years and he realized he was too spoiled by the wealth he had had in his entire life.

When he entered the city of Palo Alto, Caspar nodded in satisfaction. This was a very pretty and peaceful area. He drove his car around to see the neighborhood and made sure he really liked the vibe.

When he was satisfied with his findings, he headed to his mansion in the Palo Alto Hills area. Palo Alto was one of the most expensive cities in America, where many technology billionaires such as Apple's Steve Jobs and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg reside.

Of the several regions in Palo Alto, the Leland Manor, Crescent Park and Palo Alto Hills were the most expensive. Its location was close to Silicon Valley and Stanford University, and property prices in that area went up like crazy for the past several decades.

Stanis bought the mansion in Palo Alto Hills 20 years ago, and the price had multiplied since the technology boom in the early 2000s. All the homes that belonged to Caspar all over the world were managed by staff who were personally arranged by Stanis, since he was the head of the Schneider family's staff.

Buildings that were not personally used by Caspar were rented out or used for various purposes so that they were always maintained and kept in their best conditions.

Caspar's only permanent residences were the castle in Stuttgart, the mansion in Berlin, and the mansion in New York. Other than that, Caspar would usually stay in various penthouses or hotel suites around the world if he needed to travel. Once a year he would also visit Singapore for a month and spend time at Rose Mansion.

Three years ago, he changed his dynamics by extending his stay in Singapore to 6 months because he fell in love with the girl he met at the airport. And the rest, had become history.

The mansion he was going to in Palo Alto Hills was very pretty. It was located on the top of a hill and had a very breathtaking natural scenery. Its inhabitants had access to a golf course and a country club.

The gate to the mansion was white, quite tall, and covered a very large garden with a swimming pool at the back. He was not interested in swimming in late autumn because it must be very cold, but a barbecue on the grassy lawn beside the pool would be very pleasant, he thought.

Two staff members welcomed him at the door and readily prepared drinks and toys for Aleksis. The mansion had 6 master bedrooms and the design was very elegant. Caspar liked Stanis' taste.

Hmm... if he could choose, it would be more pleasant to stay in this mansion for a month, rather than in Finland's small apartment downtown, but he did not want to disappoint his wife and had to resist his desire to urge them to stay here.