This one ALMOST works for me. But I just can't accept the visible halo around the castle. Everything else has an excellent dream-like look to it. When I look at the lower half of the picture it looks excellent.. So I guess what I'm saying is the foreground-sky transition needs more work. Also I feel the sky is too dark. I wonder if the sky would look better clear and bright blue. That would require altering the picture, I know, but at this point we're entering the arena of pure art so I think such substitutions are acceptable.
In case I'm sounding too harsh let me repeat again, I love the lower portion. That you took a dull and dreary cloudy picture and turned into a technical dreamscape is amazing. It looks as if you've used a bit of the "false tilt shift" effect, I don't know if you actually did or not but it has that look to it, it enhances the overall surreal effect.
You say "finished versus original pic".. does that mean you did this with one picture only? I mean no bracketed exposures?