On the western side of Thor Garden, facing the Atlantic Ocean, lay Freyja Courtyard. Georgiana planned to convert it into a hotel and rent it out. Though this Summer Palace was not large and relatively new, maintaining it still required a considerable sum. The hotel's income could help subsidize it, and more importantly, it could attract guests.
She planned to build a billiards room, an indoor tennis court, and a racetrack there. Besides Las Vegas, America also had Atlantic City, where gambling was legal. Many European countries, such as Austria and France, considered gambling illegal, but it was legal in Belgium. Ostend had quite a few casinos, though they were all rather rudimentary.
Of course, she did not intend to build a casino inside the palace, but to construct one beside the racetrack. Edgeworth's idea for tracks resembled snowshoes: increase the surface area and reduce the pressure, so they would not sink into soft snow. The carriage wheels fitted with wooden-slat tracks also had a larger contact area, but his design still had many flaws. There was plenty of water in marshes, and the wooden slats would soon rot from soaking, defeating their off-road purpose.
The canal from Bruges to Ostend had not yet frozen and could still be used. Once it froze, they could only travel overland. The ice was not yet thick enough for sleighs, but the road from Mechelen to Brussels had already been decided upon. As for the other roads, how they would be built depended on the plan.
A telegraph line had already been laid in Lille, and it could continue farther south. Roads could also be built alongside telegraph lines. Before radio became widespread, gamblers listened to race results by telegraph.
Freyja's husband, Odr, was the god of travel in Northern European mythology. In