I was just looking at a photo album with highlights of a memorable trip my wife and I took to Europe a few years ago. And in looking at a few of those pictures, something struck me that I can associate with some Social Security-related questions and concerns I get from readers.
One set of photos shows us outside the ornate gates of the Palace of Versailles near Paris. We were there at about 8:45 in the morning. The gates opened at 9. And we were the very first people admitted to King Louis XIV’s magnificent royal residence. As we wandered through the splendid rooms, we almost had the entire palace to ourselves. For example, when we were in the Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the entire palace (and one of the most opulent rooms in the world), we were all by ourselves! Not another soul was to be seen. As we wandered around, we sometimes wondered if they let us in by mistake on a day when the palace was supposed to be closed. It was downright eerie. But as we finished walking around inside the palace and stepped outside to tour the grounds, we learned the place was definitely not closed. At the entrance, there were what looked like a thousand people in line waiting to get in.
