20 years ago I just thought they were Russians

When I woke this morning I wondered what to do today. My eccentric approach to being a tourist left me thinking I had 'done' Helsinki, having done the bus tour etc yesterday. But it occurred to me that there was more of Finland than Helsinki so I looked on a map and decided to head East, young man.

There's a town called Porvoo 30 miles East so I headed for that. It began to look like a big city so I diverted a bit to Old Porvoo. A lovely scene by a river/canal/fjord who knows. Cup of coffee there and watched the boats going by. A lot of pleasure cruisers etc moving compared to the Thames when in my experience most are stationary. I suppose the Finns have to make the best of the time when it hasn't become an ice rink.

I saw a few of these love tokens in Brentford but there were hundreds on this bridge. I hope Mika and Jenna are still getting goosebumps after nearly 6 years. Yes, my Finnish is improving thanks to Translate app.

Back to the big city for my ferry , Once I would have been intrigued and nervous about crossing the Iron Curtain. It was painless, though the ferry was crowded. The wind compensated for it being 25 degrees plus and I spent a lot of the journey upstairs on the sun deck.

There was a sign observing that it gets sooty up there on the sun deck. This rather proves it.

Frankly, employing Sooty on a ferry without also having Sweep is very thoughtless,

After a couple of hours I was approaching Tallinn, and it had turned a bit wet and very misty.

There was a massive traffic jam. Reminded me of Ealing Road with some of the locals going the wrong way around a roundabout and continuing along the pavement. Didn't matter. My hotel wasn't far away and is the best I've had so far.

By now it was 7pm and I had a look at what was around in Tallinn. Turned out there was a large park just round the corner.

I am not a great fan of very long lists of rules. I was not tempted to break them though I did spot a young woman crouching among the roses whilst her mate took pictures of her prancing around and posing. Could have been an advert, but I think it was just young folk having fun, which should be suppressed, obviously. An old feller made a jocular remark (I imagine, but my Estonian is rather shaky) but that was taken positively and the whole feel of the place was just lovely.

It struck me in this park, in a country that has reportedly been under the thumb for generations, was now - I'm sorry to say - a much nicer place than London, both in atmosphere (see next paragraph) and in how the public realm is respected and appropriately maintained.

I went and had a meal in a nice italian just by the park and as I strolled around it at about 9.30 two young children who had been running around with their mates (no adults) when I started eating were still there when I finished. Then their mum (I suppose/hope!) came across the road and called them in and they ran off with her.

I remember when my daughter was a child, everybody told us to keep her on a lead, as it were, because otherwise she would be run over by a car or kidnapped by someone evil. I always knew that was just wrong: apart from anything else I know children being run over by cars has declined dramatically - found this without looking hard. I don't have the same data about abduction but I'm pretty sure that is in reality very rare and reducing, despite what people think.

I am firmly of the opinion that over-protecting children is a very bad idea, but it is very difficult to go against the grain that is pressed into us all by the atmosphere of fear. This is a particular fault of the far right who say (and I quote from Facebook)

If you have family from abroad that is visiting London or you intend to visit London

Here are the rules

Do not wear a nice watch

Do not expose a nice phone

Do not wear nice jewellery

Do not carry money with you

Welcome to khans London.

Marks deducted for not being able to write correctly and all that are left removed for talking such horrible rubbish.

Back on track, there is interesting and diverse architecture around Tallinn as well. This group are a few steps from my hotel.

The other thing that is noticeable (despite the jam caused by the ferry emptying) there are so many less cars on the streets. Dead easy to park in the street where my hotel is. Anyway, mustn't get too political. but this trip is giving me a lot of food for thought.

I saw this council employee still trundling around the park at nearly 10pm, ignored by everybody. The only place I remember seeing one in UK is at the Middlesex CC women's ground on Swyncombe Avenue. Surely a few of these would leave GreenSpace people free to do more creative things than mowing lawns.

Two things I enjoyed today: Troutwalker, perhaps modelled by Desperate Dan.

Unfortunately I didn't get to take in the Undies Museum

Shortish trip tomorrow to Riga in Latvia. Will have a chance for a brief look around Tallinn before an evening in the next country down.