Museum Hopper

Our first stop in Monaco was to head up to where the royal family lives, the Palace State Apartments .  We got up there a little earlier than the palace opens.  It turns out that our phones with our Europe sim cards did not work in Monaco, so we were navigating “data” blind. We walked around the top of Monaco while we waited for the palace to open.  I recommend getting to the museum either right before it opens (so that you are first one in) OR come solidly after opening.  We squeezed in right before three (seemingly) huge tour groups.  The museum did give us audio guides.  They were very thorough audio recordings.  They also had the most awesome pronunciation of Monaco – something like maaan-a-co.  The recordings covered lots of details about the room.  Like the details about artist.  We get to go through ten-ish rooms of the palace.  No photographs.  They had some paintings of Princess Grace Kelly and her kids....

  One of the key places, we had to visit on the trip was Monaco, home of the Monaco Grand Prix.  And with that, when in Monaco, we had to visit the Car Collection of the Prince .  This was recommended on a number of websites, but I was a little apprehensive as to what to expect.   It is a little off the beaten path in Monaco (and our data plan didn't work in Monaco!)  It was one huge room.  It was not very busy either, which was rare in Monaco and on our trip overall.  I was surprised! We did buy tickets in advance as group ticket that included the royal apartments.  I think we got a slight discount buying them together; otherwise, you really did not need to buy this ticket in advance.   It truly is a private, eclectic collection.  It ranged from early cars to high performance super cars to truly quirky and unique cars.  The cars arranged chronologically.   Take this car for example -- Jason said he has...