Climbing Moss

On a  cold, blustery, grey and dreary Monday we decided  we should go see what all the fuss was about over at the Emirates Air Line (cable car ride across the River Thames). We went for a single journey from Royal London station to The Greenwich Peninsula.

We remembered to take pictures and here is our opinion of the ride…

We started our journey on North London’s Silverlink  and travelled to Shadwell (Always to be said with a welsh accent). Where a woman tried to sell us a packet of tissues for £1 or more.

We then changed to the DLR to Royal Victoria. She has never been on the Dockland’s Light Railway and it was a bumpy ride and was like riding a roller- coster through a toy town.

Her: It was peculiar for me, it was like being on a train with the added bonus of feeling car sick, plus I had never seen nor heard of most of these sights.

So we got there, Absolutely freezing cold! but interested all the same. There were cordoned lines for the masses of people that weren’t there, we paid the £3.70 single fare on our Oyster cards and boarded a cable car. Being as we were the only people there we got the car to ourselves, but on busy days you could be sharing with up to 10 people.

From the moment you board there is a TV playing full blast, telling you absolute crap about the Olympics that happened in London FOUR YEARS AGO and you can’t turn the TV off or mute it, so all the way across the Thames you have whiney voiced people singing the praises of how great London was at hosting the olympics and is totally irrelevant anymore.

So off we go up and up into the air and over the waste disposal plants, with the sea gulls picking at all the piles of rubbish and crap, What a pretty sight!

Apart from the cold weather, it was a pleasant trip up and over the great river, out by the Thames Barrier and over to the Dome and the O2 Centre.

High above the grey desolate water we passed, in the little cars, it’s pretty bumpy and apart from the distant silver hump backed Thames Barriers sat in the middle of the water there isn’t much to see. Canary Wharf and the city buildings to the west are the only landmarks visible.

Then its down again and into the southern station and our journey was over. All in all it was less than a five minute journey and the boring people on the TV were still rabbiting on and on!

The last views of the South Downs and the sun breaking through the grey clouds…

Once down and on the Greenwich Peninsula there is only the Dome/O2 centre to visit. Vast open spaces with empty bars and restaurants  which are probably packed on concert nights and weekends but on this cold, blustery Monday were dead and boring.

In all what did we think of it?

Her: It was OK! I liked being up high, but there wasn’t anything to look at, really. It was mostly building work, smashed up stuff, lots of concrete and cars, lots and lots of cars. I’m not a big fan of industrial landscapes anyway and this was a celebration of that part of London. Plus that fucking TV!

Him: It was ok, nothing special, if it had been more to the west, the views would have been better and would have ended up somewhere more interesting, but where it is, it’s dull and grey, i suspect even on the sunniest and nicest days!