And no....we haven’t taken a wrong turn and ended up in Disneyland! It’s not the Magic Kingdom that’s the Happiest Place on Earth. That title belongs to Finland!

Yes it’s true, whichever entity rates “happiness”, has assessed Finland as the world’s happiest country beating out close rivals Denmark for the past two years. Not that happiness immediately springs to mind when meeting people in Finland for the first time. Finns are famously reserved, they don’t smile easily and have a tendency to look down at their feet when addressing strangers (or at your feet once they really get to know you - or so a Finnish joke goes so we’re told!). But Finland has an advanced welfare state and an education system - usually rated as the best in the world - and where really no child is left behind! All children are encouraged to learn, tests and exams are used sparingly and no child drops out of school. Each school even has a “happiness officer” responsible for ensuring that everyone is...well, happy!

The first rite of passage for each child is to receive their own library card, essential it seems in a country where new libraries are still being built to serve the highest rate of book borrowing in the world. Libraries also serve as community centres as we see for ourselves when we visit the country’s two biggest - the Finnish National Library and the brand new Helsinki City Library where you can borrow not just books but even sewing machines and an ironing board!

Helsinki’s buildings, even the oldest all seem to be in immaculate condition, its streets are free of garbage and apparently almost free of crime. The only hazards are the numerous bicycles and electric scooters which unlike all other road users mostly ignore traffic signals

We hear all of this from our two unusual city guides, Mike and Anna. Neither are Finnish natives - Mike is English from Milton Keynes via the Lake District and wife Anna, a Russian who hails from Novosibirsk via Moscow! Mike was in Helsinki on holiday when he met Anna who was taking advantage of Finland’s free education for all (even foreigners) - the rest is history! They started their own tour company in order to share the delights of Helsinki with foreign tourists and now employ an additional three and a half people! Just as well as within a couple of weeks of our delightful day with them, Mike and Anna are relocating to Moscow where Anna has found a marketing job with of all companies, Proctor & Gamble while Mike intends to teach English! All this while continuing to run the Helsinki tour company! 

So are there any downsides to this Nordic nirvana?? Well the weather for one! Winter, often bitterly cold can last for seven months. The language is another. Just five and a half million people (plus Mike and Anna) speak Finnish, a language which is vaguely related only to Estonian and Hungarian. But no worries if you can’t cope with Finnish - all signs in public places are also written in Swedish, the country’s second language. Then there’s the next door neighbour and I don’t mean Sweden! Russia is a dominant presence in Finland. From the early 19th Century until after the Bolshevik Revolution, Finland was part of the Russian Empire. In 1939, the Soviets attempted to retake Finland but were fought to a standstill but the Finnish army much better equipped and trained to fight in the harsh winter conditions and a truce was signed in 1940. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Finland sided with the Nazis and and continued fighting the Soviet Union (the "Continuation War") but by 1944, the Finns had changed sides again and were fighting the retreating German army.

In the years that followed, Finland declared itself neutral and acted as a buffer between the Soviet Union and Western Europe. But with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland moved firmly westward, joined the EU and the Euro and Schengen zones but stayed out of NATO. Finland maintains good relations with its giant neighbour, St Petersburg is a short ferry or train ride away and Moscow is also easily reached by train from Helsinki. We saw many Russian registered cars and tour buses and of course it was Helsinki that was chosen for that bizarre meeting between Trump and Putin which ended with that never-to-be forgotten press conference!

So today, Finland is one of the most stable and prosperous countries in Europe. For the most part, Finland stays off the radar screen and doesn't really bother anybody.

Perhaps it is a "Nordic nirvana" and maybe even "the happiest place on earth". Perhaps we'll get more insight into that from Mike and Anna after they've lived in Moscow for a few months...?