We skipped the two rallycross sections of the route carefully designed by the Finnish friends of the rally. We were sorry to let them down but when we discovered that at least one of the cars had ended in a ditch the decision seemed justified…
Figure 1: Helsinki’s Modern Art Museum with a P2P rally car as decoration
This gave us time to have a walk around Helsinki and see some of the key buildings. I liked St John’s church, which presumably in a more Episcopalian country would be the cathedral. The painted altarpiece was by Sibelius’s brother in law…
Figure 2: Side view of St John’s Church, the largest church in Finland
Then we queued for the impressive Megastar ferry across to Tallinn. This was a revelation. For anyone used to ferry crossings across the Channel, it seemed so much better organised.
The ferry is spanking brand new and is LNG powered. Everything is properly clean. The shop is like a department store on three floors and obviously, the non-Finnish prices for alcohol help subsidise the experience. Loading and unloading were managed clearly and quickly.
Figure 3: The back of the car still shows the effects of using it as a substitute for brakes in Mongolia
With a relatively light driving day and a restful ferry crossing, we had the chance to explore a second Baltic capital city in the evening.
The Estonians seem to have made the transition to capitalism fairly easily. They adopted shock therapy and went through a painful period initially and the population declined from 1.6 million to 1.3 million but the consequence has been rapid growth since. They have now joined the euro and have levels of real GDP per capita well above many parts of Southern Europe. The government has been very focussed on boosting the tourist economy and is a world leader in adopting e-government (interestingly the Russians are playing quite a good game of catchup here). But the financial crisis burst a bubble and GDP declined by a third. It has one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios in the world. Prices seem low by international standards which makes it seem attractive to tourists.
A group of Estonians helped invent Skype, 44% of whose employees are based around Tallinn.
They even vote electronically and have done so since 2005.
Figure 4: Tallinn’s lovely old city
Tallinn has become a bit of a mecca for stag dos, possibly because of the country’s ratio of only 84 men per hundred women allegedly the lowest in the world, and there were some traces of lively Brits and Scans celebrating.
But we had a pleasant walk around the old city and avoided the temptation of the curry house in the main square. It’s another place I’d like to revisit, possibly as a weekend break.
Figure 5: Quite a lot of words in Estonian translate fairly easily into English…
One place we avoided was the establishment opposite our hotel. The sign on it suggested that there are some words in Estonian that translate fairly easily into English…
Mike and Doug are fundraising for the Harinder Veriah Trust. It provides essential equipment and tuition to enable the poorest of pupils to attend the Assunta School in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. It is a worthy cause and particularly close to Doug’s heart since his first Cub Scout Bob-a-Job week aged 6! The brothers have been supporting the school ever since. To donate or find out more please follow this link: https://www.gofundme.com/7hf8j-peking-to-paris-2019