Air, land and sea – a unique day out in London COMPLETED 9/9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Air, land and sea – a unique day out in London COMPLETED 9/9
Air, land and sea – a unique day out in London
Saturday 30 August – part one: taking to the air…
This day was one of those things, where we finally got around to doing some of the things I’ve wanted to do for some time – I’m sure you probably have things like that on the list for fairly near where you leave, but somehow you never get around to it? Well, today was that day.
So, to explain the title of this trip report, the air part saw us taking to the skies above London on the Emirates Air Line cable car, which was installed over the River Thames just before the London 2012 Olympics. The land took us to the west side of London to visit the London Transport Museum’s depot on a special guided tour, before we headed back to the east side of London to visit the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to enjoy Paralympic swimming at the London Aquatics Centre there as part of National Paralympics Day.
We left home around 8:00am, and headed up to the O2, known in a previous life as the Millennium Dome. As we approached, we got a glimpse of the cable cars that we’d be going on shortly.
We parked up, and walked over to the station, which was about a five minute walk. I loved how you got some great views of the cars as you got closer.
It was weird, but when we got there, there was no-one in the ticket booths at all. I already had tickets that I’d bought online, but I had no idea if you needed to exchange them, or could just use them at the gates. Well, it turned out the latter was true. Thank goodness there was a guy on the gates to tell us that.
We headed up, and watched one group head off on a car, then we grabbed another one.
Thankfully, as it was so quiet, we were able to have the car to ourselves. We saw a lot of empty ones during our journey, and it looked as if they were essentially just putting each group into a different car, which was very nice. Then we were off…
… and very quickly we were getting some wonderful views of the River Thames beneath us…
In the distance was the Thames Barrier, which helps to protect London from flooding…
Also in the distance was the Olympic Park with the Orbit and the Olympic Stadium…
Next: wow, you don’t normally see that in a residential development!
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Those cable cars look fun! Definitely a new addition since our time in London in 2010. Not sure we'd get DS on them - he wasn't thrilled with the London Eye! I'd give it a go, though, and I know DD would love it!
Reminds me a bit of the old Skyway at Disneyland!
Those cable cars look fun! Definitely a new addition since our time in London in 2010. Not sure we'd get DS on them - he wasn't thrilled with the London Eye! I'd give it a go, though, and I know DD would love it!
It opened just before the London 2012 Olympics, so it is a new addition.
Saturday 30 August – part two: wow, you don’t normally see that in a residential development!
Soon we were flying over the Royal Docks beneath us. Here you could see evidence of previous industry…
... although today it’s home to residential developments, but not all housing comes with this as an added extra!
Soon we were coming into land…
The Docklands Light Railway far beneath us
…. but we decided to stay in our car, and just head straight back to the other side. This time, we got some lovely views of the city skyline, dominated by Canary Wharf…
… and the O2…
Before long, we were heading back to our original starting point…
We got out, and headed out, stopping on the way at Tesco Express to get ourselves some lunch. Ok, so it wasn’t even 10:00am, but we were heading across the city, which would take us about an hour, and our tour at the London Transport Museum was due to start at 11:00am, and would last a couple of hours, so I wanted to eat something before we started the tour. We headed down into the North Greenwich tube station, home to the newest part of the network, so don’t be fooled by the shields on the platform, as only a few stations have these:
For the next hour, we rode on the Tube, taking in three different lines, and I don’t know how many stations on the way, eating some of our lunch on the way. Bear in mind that we were literally travelling from one side of the city to the other, hence why it took so long. Finally, we were at our destination, Acton Town, and although the photo doesn’t show this brilliantly, it was a surreal experience getting off here, as the train was actually lower than the platform…
This was a lovely station, and a lot of the Tube stations look similar, as they were built in the 1920s and 1930s, and they have a distinctive architectural feel to them as a result.
That cable car ride was a great way to get an overview of the city. Beautiful shots. I noticed cable cars in several of the European cities we saw this summer.
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Then we were off… 
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