Another vowel please Carol

As we get closer and closer to Finland the language becomes more and more impenetrable - we now don't even recognise the word for beer. Luckily most people we come into contact with now can speak excellent English so we aren't going thirsty. One of our blog readers kindly said it was more exciting than the Archers - probably he was being ironic but for all our fans of the everyday story of country folk we have exciting news about the evolution of the Baltic haystack. Wheras in Poland the hay was collected into little heaps the stacks have become more elaborate as we've gone north. Latvia had stacks with a hole in the middle and now Estonia has gone one better and they look like little cottages. We met a lovely Frenchman called Pierre. Guess where? In a bus shelter. He had been following a route much like ours but was heading off to Finland. He hadn't noticed the haystacks but had an interesting series of photos of strange towers which we hadn't seen at all. We had a jolly lunch together in the bus shelter and met him again by accident in Tartu where we are staying now.

Here's a picture of the lunch.

For students of economics or sociology, we were amazed by the step change when we crossed from Latvia into Estonia, which we did on the quietest border crossing I have ever seen. In about half an hour only three vehicles passed us in any direction. It's a cliche but it was like passing into Switzerland. Beautifully kept farms wide and empty roads and drivers with great manners and patience. We can now pass parked cars without think our time might be coming. We are staying in a Soviet era hotel which is very calm quiet and comfortable. As we write our bikes are parked, next to the piano in what we think might be a ballroom. It seems that the swankier the hotel the more accommodating the staff are about our bikes.

We are Tartu which is Estonia's University town and is well worth a visit. We are staying here for a couple of days; tomorrow we are going to Tallinn on the train for the day. We are currently puzzling about how to get to St Petersburg. It's only one day's ride from the Estonian border and we have spent some of this morning trying to see if there is nice tourist detour we can make. It's not looking to good, so we think we will make the one day dash to the southern suburbs and take the train the last 20 km

For our Archers fans here's a picture of Estonian haystacks.














And finally a glamour shot