You can take a five-minute flight across the Thames on something called the Emirates Air Line. It’s a cable-car ride between North Greenwich and the Royal Docks that’s sponsored by the Gulf carrier. Much else on the ride simulates a plane trip — the tickets are called boarding passes, and when you ‘take off’ from either side of the river there’s a large digital screen showing cheery people waving you off, as at an airport. As I embark from the southern bank, a bunch of ‘Butchers from South London’ bid me goodbye.

The cable cars, however, are called gondolas rather than, say, ‘cockpits’ or ‘cabins’ — and once up in the air the whole of London unfolds. To the west there’s the City, with the Gherkin and the Shard, and the Eye peeping out from behind the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf.

Suddenly the O2 is under you as the Olympic Stadium looms larger and larger. Is London’s skyline as stunning as Manhattan’s or Hong Kong’s? I’d say not. But there’s something about its unfussiness, its higgledy-piggledyness, that endears.

The ride is not only for those who love planes and buildings. It’s also for those who like ports and boats. As you gaze downwards at the Docks, you get a sense of London as a true river city, with a naval heart. Boats, barges and ferries wend their way on the green water, tied to each other so that they travel in formation as little flotillas. The seagulls swoop up and down over the boats, below you.

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