London's very own gondola

The passionate skiers at Ski Solutions had one thing in mind when they saw a gondola erected on home turf - skiing. Despite the obvious lack of July snow, they rallied a bunch of ski buddies, dragged the ski kit back out of the back of the wardrobe and headed off for an outing.

After the ride the ski crew assembled for apres-ski at the Fox bar in the ExCel Centre - any excuse for a round of Jägerbombs and a little light stamping on tables.

UK's first urban gondola

We've always been able to ski in the UK, whether in one of the snow slope 'fridges' like Hemel's Snow Centre, one of the many dry slopes, or on real snow in Scotland or even the Lake District. But now we are truly established as the UK’s first urban cable car is now officially open.
Running between North Greenwich and the Royal Docks, and with a journey time of less than 10 minutes, the cable car is supposed to provide easy access to the North Greenwich Arena and Excel Centre, but so far our eyes on the ground tell us that it's mostly frequented by people riding back and forth for the superb views.

Commute to work by cable car

The Emirates Air Line opened on the 28th of June, 2012, and cost around £6m. It's a kilometre long and crosses 90m (300ft) above the river. The gondola is part of the Transport for London network, so Londoners and visitors (up to 2500 an hour) can use their Oyster Card to get across. It'll cost £3.20 with an Oyster Card, £4.30 without, and surprisingly the project is not an Olympic gimmick - it's intended as a commuter service, and it's just luck that it's open in time for the games.