From The Other Trench: The WW1 Diary and Photos of a German Officer, by Alexander Pfeifer and Philipp Cross (True Perspective Press, 2024), Kindle pp. 95-96:
We continued to Ostend at 8 o’clock the next morning, where we arrived after 10. During a morning drink, we then waited for our company which arrived an hour later. The whole army is in fact now going one by one to Ostend for a day to swim. Count von Soden was also there. After a lovely swim in the sea, we ate lunch together in the mess hall of the Marine Corps. While the company had to leave again immediately afterwards, we extra excursionists were able to stay until 5 o’clock and lay in the sun on the beach in our swimming trunks all afternoon. We then took the electric railway along the entire dunes to Blankenberge. On this trip, we saw torpedo boats, two submarines, and all the coastal fortifications. We then took the train to Bruges, where we had to wait over an hour for the express train from Ostend, which was delayed due to engine failure. It was unfortunately already so dark that we couldn’t see much of ancient Bruges. After the endless French, we had a lot of fun with the Flemish language, which you can understand quite well if you pay close attention.
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