Tallinn's Medieval Old Town Before the Cruise Ships Dock

Tallinn's Old Town is the best-preserved medieval city in northern Europe. Not 'pretty medieval' or 'lovingly restored medieval' — genuinely, documentably, extraordinarily intact: the 13th-century city walls still surround it on three sides, the Town Hall square is bounded by the same merchant houses that the Hanseatic traders built in the 15th century, and the view from Toompea hill down over the Lower Town's tiled rooftops and church spires is essentially unchanged from what a medieval visitor would have seen.

Like Venice, the problem is other people — specifically, the enormous cruise ships that anchor in Tallinn harbour between May and September and discharge three or four thousand passengers into a city centre designed for several hundred. Between ten in the morning and six in the evening in summer, the Old Town is wall-to-wall. The answer, again like Venice, is the same: be there first. The streets at seven in the morning are empty. The cats own the square. The bakeries are putting out the first morning pastries, and the light is extraordinary.

Tallinn rewards slow exploration. The Toompea hill (Upper Town) has the government buildings and the Danish King's Garden with views north toward the sea. The Lower Town has the pharmacy (one of Europe's oldest, functioning since 1422), the guild houses, the Fat Margaret tower, and the Viru Gate. Medieval eating and drinking in Olde Hanse restaurant is theatrical but genuine fun. In the evening, the city transforms again: small bars around Telliskivi and Kalamaja fill with Estonians in their twenties, and the Old Town lights up beautifully.