Flight

Twelve years ago the Millennium Dome replaced a pungent treacle factory in a run-down industrial loop of the Thames that was renamed 'North Greenwich' to make it sound more attractive. All the desperate signs of urban regeneration arrived - the Holiday Inn, the IMAX cinema, the hypermarket...This year some of the Olympics are happening in the Dome.

Across the river in Silvertown, where in my childhood there were busy docks and where as a student I earnt holiday money packing fruit, there is now City Airport. Businesspeople can get to lunch meetings in Frankfurt and Zurich and be back in their London penthouses for cocktails. There is also a large exhibition centre, ExCel, and more of the Olympics are taking place here.

Although the Blackwall tunnel for vehicles is nearby, pedestrians or cyclists wanting to cross the river have had to trek to the foot-tunnel upstream (at real Greenwich) or the Woolwich ferry downstream. But all that changed six weeks ago. Today my mum, son and I caught the new cable car across the river from the Millennium Dome.

Such fun!

The day was slightly hazy but from the Thames flood barrier to the east, over the ships in full sail below, to Canary Wharf and central London in the west, the views are stunning. The five-minute 'flight' is surprisingly smooth and the steep swoop down to ExCel is almost as good as parachuting with James Bond into the Olympic stadium.

Oh, but the airport is close.