10 Most Fascinating Castles and Palaces

Well, let's make that 12, shall we?

From the Potala Palace in Tibet...



...to Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps, these are 10 fabulous entries.



I'd like to offer two others though as well.

One is the glorious Fonthill Castle, nearby to me in Doylestown, PA. Built by Historian and archaeologist Henry Mercer almost 100 years ago, it's a true work of art.


Her Nibs unwittingly used for purposes of scale

Even more stunning, and surprising in being left off of this list, is the magnificent palace of His Nibs.



See the other eight by clicking on the title to this blog entry.

Brick by Brick, a Weekend Warrior Builds a Medieval Retirement Home

SNELLING, Calif. — Most days, the talk here among the farmers and almond growers along this stretch of two-lane blacktop 18 miles from the nearest on-ramp concerns heat units — as hot summer days are known — and the hull split that signals the approach of almond harvest season.

But there is also the Kasteel Noz, the turreted brick castle with two towers and a moat that Casper Noz, a 51-year-old contractor who was born in the Netherlands, has been obsessively building by himself almost completely by hand on weekends for the past 20 years.



Read the entire N.Y. Times article here.