“In our dreams we are able to fly … and that is a remembering of how we were meant to be,” my husband Joe quotes Madeleine L\’Engle as he ushers me onto the tram. I don’t know who L/’Engle is, but I do think he has lost his mind.
I am the one who used to climb mountains and hand off rocks for fun. He is the one who has his feet firmly planted on the ground. Yes, he did zip line once in St. Lucia, but I thought beer might have addled his brain in the Caribbean heat.
We planned our trip to London – rather I did and kept bugging him to help. Planning is not his favorite activity. However, when he saw a picture of the United Arab Emirates’ tram across the Thames, he’d planned enough: I want to do that.
The tram opened in July of 2012 and is the UK’s first urban cable car system. It can transport 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction. That’s the same capacity as fifty bus loads. The tram provides “provides spectacular views of the London skyline at 90 meters in the air as it efficiently connects visitors traveling from the city’s Olympic venues to existing public transit lines.” That’s about 300 feet off the ground, water or buildings below.
Disneyland for adults (as though Disneyland wasn’t for adults), that’s what this tram is. We went on a cloudy mid-week day and had no lines to wait in. The sky was gray, but the view was clear and we saw all of London below us. Joe was enthusiastic talking pictures of trams coming and going past us.
I, without a rope to anchor me in place, was a bit concerned by the way the continuous wind bounced us about!
But, I’d go again in a heartbeat!