Yesterday we went to Monaco (officially referred to as the Principality of Monaco), about a 45 minute bus trip from Nice. Monaco borders France and is a short hop away from Italy. One side of its border is along the Mediterranean Sea so this tiny country, with a total area of 2 km2, the second smallest and the most densely populated in the world, seems to glisten in the sun. Of course this sparkle is helped by the piles of gold owned by its inhabitants as Monaco holds the title for the highest number of millionaires and billionaires per capita in the world. I felt right at home wearing the same cloths, washed of course, that I have won for the past 3 months.

Our first stop was a tour around the Royal Palace – that was to keep Karen and Amy happy. Next we went to the Oceanographic Museum, which we all enjoyed, but Daniel was particularly keen on visiting. It was nice to have Daniel running around the aquarium tell us the names of the marine animals and various facts about them. I found the Hermit Crab and Daniel’s commentary on it the most fascinating.

We then had lunch in the park and then the boys set off in one direction and the girls in the opposite. Karen and Amy went caught a bus back toward the Oceanographic Museum to take a road train tour and Daniel and I heading to the other end of Monaco to check out the supercars! Yes you wouldn’t believe it but we happened to be in Monaco the weekend of the most exclusive supercar show in the world – the Top Marques Monaco show (www.Topmarquesmonaco.com).

Daniel’s blog on the supercar show will have more details but here are a few photos of some of the cars. It was difficult to pick favorites but I really liked GTA’s Spano. It has 820 hp, 960 Nm torque, and a top speed of over 350 km/h (which is even faster than Karen drives). It has acceleration from 0 to 100 Km/h in less than three seconds. I don’t recall the exact price but it seemed pretty attractive, around then 500 or 600,000 euros (NZ million).

At the moment there are only two of these in the world and Daniel had a great talk to the sale person who ended up letting him sit in the car. Afterward the sales person had to close the door of the car to stop the queue of other people wanting to also sit in the car.

It was a thrill to see the a real life Bugatti Veyron. With an unbelievable acceleration of 2.5 sec for 0-100 km/h and for this particular car a top speed of 407 km/h.

MacLaren’s still manufactures a well-priced sweet supercar. Another Germany company, Hamann, had several models of the MacLaren’s on show which they customized.

The following is a fully electric car which from memory can do 0-100 in under 3 seconds! On one charge it can drive 600 km, not bad for an electric.

I have always liked the looks of the Lamborghini and so was delighted to see one at the show although I would have preferred to see a yellow Lamborghini like the one below rather than the black one.

(Visited 21 April 2012.)