The Emirates Cable-Car (actually it’s what skiers would call a gondola rather than a cable car) opens Thursday June 28. It crosses above the Thames linking the 02 and Excel arenas. It will cost Oyster card holders £3.20 each way, or anyone else £4.30 each way.

Compare this to the cost of going up the Mittal Orbit – £15, and other than during the Olympics the Orbit won’t actually be open till July 27 2013. And if you want to experience it during the Olympics but don’t have a ticket to an Olympic Park event, it’ll cost you a further £10 just to enter the Park, making your excursion a stratospheric out of Orbit £25 per person.

Ok, the Orbit & Emirates are not like-for-like journeys, but the immediate availability and low cost of the cable-car appears to make it a relative bargain in comparison. The cable car will give great views of the area from 60 metres above the Thames, and unlike the Orbit, the view will be ever changing.

It also links Historic Greenwich with the very different but equally historic, in its own way, East End. It will now be possible to walk through Greenwich, then enjoy the views from the cable car, then walk the streets of Call The Midwife; Execution Dock; Our Mutual Friend; Jack the Ripper and Other Famous East End Murders. And to rest your feet and have a beer or grab some lunch or dinner, you can pop in one or two of London’s oldest and most charming riverside pubs, the Prospect of Witby and The Grapes.

Or you can head to the Olympic Park by strolling up Bow Creek and the River Lea, past the charming historic Three Mills area, and you can take a short detour into the Bow of Sylvia Pankhurst, Gandhi, Save the Children and the infamous Bryant & May Matchbox Factory. The Victorian factory is still there, just a few hundred from the Olympic stadium. It’s roof is where the planned anti-aircraft rockets are going to be mounted during the Olympics.

I guide walks of Historic Greenwich, Call the Midwife, the Docks, Jack the Ripper, Other Famous East End Murders and the Olympics. I tailor-make the walk to your requirements. You can combine two walks if you wish, no problem.