Great to see you have started to share what you are doing!
I have been lurking/commenting for a while, all the time getting ideas, but also making the step of actually starting to put a layout together.
My kids are 9 and 5 and love lego, so I am now working on a layout which satisfies my needs for a layout, yet also has some playability for them. Luckily, we moved house to just north of Stockholm last year and we have a hobby room downstairs which has space for a layout.
I would love a castle in my city layout also. I have always envisaged a 'ruin' or at leasts a tourist style attraction castle in there and its great when a visit to a real place gives some inspiration. We have been to two very contrasting places in the last month, New York, and Jönkoping. Both very inspiring in different ways!
As I said, great to see you have taken the leap and started to create the layout.
Ill start a thread soon I hope with some very basic progress on. I have created some of the tables, and started to get the base plates in place with train track!