A good tour guide sees the same streets you do and finds a story on every corner. Stories are mostly noticing.

The difference between a dull walk and an interesting one is rarely the street. It is whether anybody has done the work of finding out what happened there and why the road bends. Stories are not lying around waiting; they are the product of somebody being curious enough to ask, and then they attach to the corner permanently.

Become the guide for one block this week. Pick a building you pass constantly and find out one real thing about it: a date, a name, what it used to be. Ask an older neighbour or look it up. Tell somebody, and you will never walk past it blankly again.