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[[left margin in red]] Zeebrugge [[\left margin in red]]
and that either my visit might cause an unwelcome commotion to indifferent people, who never knew about me, or might have forgotten and might resent an intrusion on their [[red underline]] somnolent lazy occupations [[\red underline]] - or perhaps would have given an undue importance to the event. - I [[red underline]] felt more than ever like Rip van Winckle![[\red underline]]
Instead I took a horse carriage to drive to the former cement constructed [[red underline]] submarine shelter [[\red underline]] of the Germans which still exist much as they left it. Tomorrow or Sunday I shall go to [[strikethrough]] Zeeburg [[/strikethrough]] Zeebrugge where the British sunk their ships to bottle up the German submarines and which is connected with Brugge - Sea harbor [[red underline]](Brugge-Zeehaven) [[\red underline]] by means of a wide well dredged canal which was built since I went [[strikethrough]] left [[/strikethrough]] to America and which in my younger years was a favorite project for reviving dead Bruges. It does not seem as if it had added much life to the old and interesting [[strikethrough]] place [[/strikethrough]] town. The old buildings are left just as desolate as they were in my time, and the old "Halletoren" is still used for the butchers market and I saw no attempts at restoration or removal of incongruous adjacent modern ugly buildings as was done in Ghent.
[[underline]] June 18. [[\underline]] Have mailed [[red underline]] Rachel [[\red underline]] 500 frcs for her ticket and travelling expenses to Ostend. Went walking all day cold and gray. Afternoon took train to [[red underline]] Zeebrugge [[\red underline]] to see the War Museum there. Everything so flat, so gray so monotonous, so plodding,, so insular, so petty. People seem so petty, drowsy and yet sometimes
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as impetuous as children.
[[red underline]] Priests [[\red underline]] and [[red underline]] nuns [[\red underline]] everywhere and the statues and images of every saints remind me of the icons of the Russian and the idolatry of the Far East. The Arabs and Catins are no worse and are decidedly more picturesque [[strikethrough]] than [[\strikethrough]]  The Belgians, like the Irishmen, have a way of nourishing their grievances for centuries. Altho' the Belgians hate the Germans, they cannot resist drinking German imported beer if they have the cash to buy it.
There is no doubt that the Belgians excel the U.S, in their public statues many of which are decided works of art.  Sometimes they are erected for trivial occasions.
Rapid channel passenger steamers run from [[red underline]] Zeebrugge [[\red underline]] - to England. An enormous expensive and pretentiously built hotel stands empty and boarded up. - Promotees and boomers have been busy here as in Florida. The main attraction is an [[red underline]] underground museum of war; [[\red underline]] some kind of underground cellar which is a reproduction of the German Club as it existed during the war, with the same inscriptions caricatures [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] mottos, [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] photos and announcements on the walls as they existed then, together with objects used during the war. All in all a [[red underline]] very damaging exhibition to the Germany of wartime [[\red underline]] and to the spirit of its officers and soldiers. The museum is much visited by British tourists and is specially interesting to them because it has several [[strikethrough]] out [[/strikethrough]] exhibits giving details of their heroic attempt to bottle up this German submarine nest. - All this today, seems like an impossible dream, and yet the [[red underline]] present generation is again planting the [[\red underline]]