Castle Hunting: Laarne

On a cool, sunny day we set out from Ghent by bus. We made our way to quiet Laarne, which seemed mostly empty, and walked to castle Laarne, which looked pretty attackable from the front.

We trespassed through a sheep field to get around to the back, and found it a little better defended. It's been more of a manor house, though, for most of its existence. Apparently, there's a great collection of tapestries inside. We didn't get a chance to look because it's only open to the public on sunday afternoons.
The sheep were pretty unimpressed by the tourists in their midst. This is the second castle we've been to with a flock close by. We think it might be a photogenic/faux-pastoral thing.

This is part of the outer wall and the smaller second moat. Notice how this wall is made of brick - it was added centuries later, but it speaks to a common problem here. Like in the area surrounding Slot Loevestein, there isn't a lot of rock in this part of Belgium. Brick was cheaper and easier to source, so they did as much as they could with it.