Towers of Tallinn

Someone asked me which was my favourite city on our Baltic tour, and when I said it was hard to decide between Stockholm and Tallinn, asked "but isn't Tallinn a bit too chocolate-box perfect?"

It's true, Tallinn is a very pretty place. But I don't see that as a problem! It's not as though the city was built to be cute: the towers were built with the thoroughly practical purpose of defending the city walls. It's just unusual to have so much medieval stonework still standing. (The disadvantage of this is the huge crowds that come with the cruise ships - but it's easy enough to avoid the medieval city for the few hours whhich the cruises spend in town.)

Some of the towers have been turned into museums; others have been abandoned, or absorbed as part of new buildings. But they're everywhere you look, looming over you as you stroll through narrow streets, or dotted below you if you look out from the top of the hill.