What I bring on a city walk

This is not a list of recommendations. This is a list of things I have, over the years, started to bring on city walks, and that have outlasted the things I used to bring. Whether they will work for you is your problem.

A small notebook

I carry a notebook the size of a passport. Hard cover, ruled, no elastic band, no pocket on the back. I write down two things: the name of the café where I have stopped, and the time. That is all. The point is not to write a journal; the point is to anchor my memory of the walk to specific places and times. Six months later, the two-line entries are enough to reconstruct the entire walk.

A pen that does not leak

This is a more important sentence than it looks. I have ruined three pairs of trousers in nine years to leaking pens. I now carry a single rollerball that costs four euros and is utterly unspectacular but has not leaked once. It also writes legibly on any paper, which my fountain pens did not.

Real shoes

Not running shoes, not trainers, not boots. Real walking shoes, the kind that look like normal shoes but have a flexible sole and a slight cushion. The difference between a six-hour walk in proper shoes and a six-hour walk in everyday shoes is the difference between coming home tired and coming home injured.

If you have to think about your feet during a walk, the walk is failing.

One layer of warmth more than I think I need

European weather, especially in shoulder season, is unreliable. I always bring one warmer layer than the weather forecast suggests. The number of times I have not needed it is roughly equal to the number of times I have needed it and would have been miserable without it.

A water bottle

Empty, refilled at fountains. Most European cities have public fountains; the apps that list them are now reasonably accurate. I do not buy bottled water in cities. It is wasteful, it is expensive, and the fountains are usually within five minutes of wherever I am.

Less money than I think I need

Counter-intuitive. The constraint of having limited cash forces me to think about what I actually want to buy. I have, on multiple occasions, declined a coffee in a tourist-overpriced café because I did not have the cash and did not want to find an ATM, and that has invariably been the right decision.

What I do not bring

• A camera. I write essays, not photo essays. A photographer should bring a camera; I should not.
• Headphones. The point of walking is to hear the city.
• A second phone charger. One charger is enough; carrying two is admitting defeat.
• A guidebook. I have books at home for that.