The city that
refuses to be flat.

There's something about San Francisco that stays with you.

For me, it was the hills, the cable cars, the waterfront and the pleasure of a proper American breakfast. Not a single grand moment so much as a collection of things that couldn't quite belong anywhere else.

The streets seem to rise at ridiculous angles. You turn a corner and suddenly the road falls away towards the water. It's a city that makes getting from one place to another part of the experience.

The pleasure of going slowly

I particularly liked the cable cars. They're old-fashioned in the best possible way: all clatter, movement and character. They make you notice the streets rather than simply pass through them.

It's the sort of thing I find myself drawn to in other places, too. The slightly worn-in, the functional, the familiar. Things that have developed a character of their own rather than having one designed for them.

Across the Golden Gate

One of the highlights of the trip was hiring a bicycle, riding across the Golden Gate Bridge and continuing into Sausalito.

There's something satisfying about crossing a landmark under your own steam. You aren't just stopping for a photograph; you're actually making a journey. The bridge becomes a road, the water opens out on either side, and the city gradually falls behind you.

Sausalito felt like a change of pace after the hills and movement of San Francisco. And rather than cycle back, I took the ferry across the bay.

That was the perfect ending: seeing the city again from the water, after having spent the day travelling away from it on two wheels.

Alcatraz and the waterfront

I also visited Alcatraz. It makes an interesting counterpoint to the rest of the trip: a place with an extraordinary history, separated from a busy, colourful city by a relatively short stretch of water.

Back on the waterfront, I enjoyed spending time around the piers. It's the mixture that appeals: the working-harbour feeling, the crowds, the older buildings and the sea air. Not every part needs to be picturesque to be memorable.

Breakfast, properly

And then there were the diners. I love an American breakfast: eggs, bacon, pancakes, coffee, and portions that don't seem particularly concerned with what you have planned for lunch.

There's an easy familiarity to a good diner. You sit down, order something straightforward and watch the morning unfold around you. I remember those breakfasts just as fondly as some of the better-known sights.

What stays with you

The cable cars climbing the hills. Cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito. The ferry back across the bay. Alcatraz. The piers. Breakfast in a diner.

None of it is obscure, and that's fine. You don't have to discover a secret neighbourhood to have a meaningful experience of a place.

Sometimes the things everyone knows a city for are worth doing precisely because they're so completely its own.

An ongoing collection of good things.
— Milarollo.

Photographs are licensed editorial illustrations by independent photographers, not photographs taken on this trip. Photographer credits and source links are shown with each image. Images are served from Unsplash and require an internet connection.