It is always worth pondering quite where is the best place to change trains. Many journeys across Europe offer multiple options. No sane Brit ever chooses to change trains at Birmingham New Street—a sort of subterranean Hades somewhere in the English Midlands—and few are ever really forced to do so. For many rail itineraries across England give a plethora of possible points for an hour’s leisure time, to enjoy a coffee and a bit of fresh air while waiting for the next train connection.

This is the case in many other European countries as well. Surely no rational human being ever decided that Warsaw’s eastern station (Warszawa Wschodnia) was the ideal place to mull over the affairs of the world for an hour or two between trains. Generous-hearted souls we may be, but it is difficult to find a good word for Wschodnia – unless you want to catch the pulse of what life was like in much of eastern and central Europe two decades ago. Take a look at this architectural gem and the surrounding cityscape.

And then there are the railway stations where it is an absolute delight to linger between trains, the sort of places where changing trains is a blessing. Dresden Hauptbahnhof is emerging from a protracted reconstruction to become one of those. Cologne’s Hauptbahnhof already is. Ignore the frenzied bustle of its shopping mall (a tribute to poor taste and greasy food) and head instead for the cathedral, a mere thirty-second walk from the station’s main entrance.

It doesn’t take a lot to transform an enforced layover into a memorable travel moment. Brussels Midi is the largest of the rail stations in the Belgian capital, and the area of town in which it is located is nothing to write home about. But we change trains there often and La Table du Midi, an unpretentious café just a stone’s throw from the railway platforms, makes it all worthwhile.

There are some stations which are just fabulous places to arrive and linger, unquestionably good spots to change trains. Among our favourites are Zürich Hauptbahnhof (so well placed for the city centre) and Berlin’s new Hauptbahnhof (a crystal cathedral for transport.)

So check those schedules carefully. You simply don’t want to change trains at Warszawa Wschodnia or Birmingham New Street.

This is the seventh in a series of fortnightly blog posts by the editors of hidden europe.

Jet2holidays is currently marketing a £274 package (per person, based on four people sharing an apartment) departing from Leeds Bradford on May 31. The package includes a round-trip flight on Jet2 (from Leeds Bradford to Olbia), seven nights at the Residence Le Conchiglie in Budoni, transfers to and from the hotel, and taxes. The package gets more expensive later in the spring and summer—£274 for May 31 departure is the cheapest it gets.

Meanwhile, and in a completely unrelated development, Ryanair released its November passenger stats today. Passenger numbers in November were up 23 percent over last November’s numbers, at 3.89 million over last November’s 3.16 million. Load factor lagged slightly, falling to 78 percent from 79 percent. Load factor designates the percentage of seats filled relative to the number of seats offered for sale.

Europe has its fair share of those little tiddler states – you know the ones, territories like San Marino, Monaco and Liechtenstein which, if you cut a decent pace, you can walk across in a day.

Vatican City is the tiniest of the bunch. You can stride from one end of this theocratic state to the other in the time it takes to mumble two Hail Marys. In addition to those well known microstates, there are places like the Faroes, the Åland Islands and the Bailiwick of Guernsey which function to all intents and purposes as independent states while retaining a nominal political link to another entity. Then there are the places that aspire towards independence, but whose secessionist aspirations have not yet been internationally recognised: Abkhazia, Transdniestr and – certainly one to watch in the weeks ahead – Kosovo.

Oddest of the bunch is surely Sealand, an upstart self-styled principality on an abandoned sea fort in the North Sea. No-one really takes Sealand seriously, except for the retired British army officer who ‘occupied’ this unprepossessing lump of concrete in 1967. He and his family (all now royals of course) really assert Sealand’s right to independence, and in this fortieth anniversary year of Sealand life, devoted (or gullible) fans of Europe’s quirkiest polity can purchase souvenir mugs and T-shirts.

Last year life on the offshore statelet took a turn for the worse when a fire in a generator room destroyed what few home comforts Sealand ever possessed. Unsurprisingly, the Sealand Royal Family are minded to quit and return to the English mainland. So Sealand is up for sale. If you have 750 million euros to spare, now is the chance to splash out and buy your own (presumably slightly singed) statelet.

This is the six in a series of fortnightly blog posts by the editors of hidden europe.

Photo by Something in between

It’s Thursday. Read up.

1. Tourism is on the rise in Jersey. Bookings on the Channel Island in May, 2007 were up 25 percent over May, 2006 bookings. Clearly Jersey Tourism’s UK television campaign is paying off.

2. SkyEurope is hawking a bunch of €39 all inclusive one-way fares. The fare sale period stretches from July 2 through October 28. Promo fares can be booked until midnight (Central European timezone) on July 8.

3. We’re very curious about BelleAir, the airline that flies to and from Tirana from 14 airports in Italy. We also wonder why their route map appears to refigure Europe politically, ignoring last year’s Serbia-Montenegro split and, more bizarrely, turning Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria into one massive new country.

4. When the weather heats up, as it is currently doing, our minds turn to those tiny garden-and-hut plots so often sighted from behind windows of trains zipping from city to city throughout German-speaking Europe. Typically located on the outskirts of cities, a Kleingarten or Schrebergarten plot provides a way for people of average means to grow vegetables and fruit, get some fresh air, and relax. What a glorious solution to the stresses of urban life. Check out this description of the Schrebergarten phenomenon.

Here. There. And Elsewhere.

1. Europe A La Carte Blog warns of delays at UK airports. Partially to blame: Spain’s new security rules for air passengers, which seem to us to flirt with violating the spirit of Schengen.

2. Italian somewhat low-cost carrier Volare is hawking a €10 discount on all July flights, if booked by July 2. Worth checking out.

3. UK travel gourmand site Black Tomato tell us about Yotel.com, a new airport-based pod-like accommodation featuring tiny cabin-like rooms with en suite showers. A Yotel is about to open at Gatwick’s South Terminal, where rates will begin at £25 for a four-hour stay in a “standard” cabin. The earliest date taken by the Yotel booking engine is July 1.

Two hotels in the northern English town of Blackpool were recently awarded two tourism Oscars at the Enjoy England Excellence Awards ceremony.

The two Blackpool winners: the Number One Guesthouse (Bed and Breakfast category) and the more upmarket Stanley House (Best Small Hotel of the Year.)

Blackpool is certainly worth a visit. Twelve miles of seafront, the famous “Pleasure beach” amusement park, waxworks second only to Madame Tussauds in London, a waterworld and its own zoo, model village, and sealife centre. Plus, the town is well-known for its lively gay and lesbian scene.

In September, Blackpool ushers in its Blackpool Illuminations, with its many tableaux of moving pictures all made up of tiny lights. The city’s trams, the only ones still in operation in England, are also festooned with lights.

Photo by John Barnabas

The Financial Times’ Weekend section contained two travel articles that particularly snagged our attention.

Our favorite piece: Dan Hofstadter’s ode to Ferrara. We’ve been fans of Emilia-Romagna ever since we ate our way through the region’s exquisite restaurants one autumn not long ago. Hofstadter’s description of misty cobbled streets engulfed by cyclists served as an enticing reminder of the region.

Over a page, Claire Wrathall’s love letter to the Suffolk town of Aldeburgh (see above) also intrigued us, perhaps even enough to prompt us to visit the quiet seaside dorf as a sidetrip.

And, as always, Simon Kuper’s Sporting Life column delivered the goods. This past weekend, Kuper wrote about larger-than-life Surinamese-Dutch soccer player Clarence Seedorf.

Photo by simonse15

We’re getting incredibly bored of celebs-cum-designers who don’t actually design anything but just stamp their name on some poorly-sewn kit. Our sourness aside, if you have a thing for Lily Allen—daughter of someone famous over here—you can pick up some of her style at New Look with her Lily Loves collection. (Ms. Allen’s Patricia Fields look is not what she was wearing at public school, by the way. We think a stylist had just a little bit to do with her aesthetic evolution. But we digress.)

To be honest, the collection isn’t particularly good, and the craftsmanship is more or less non-existent. At least the latter adheres to High Street’s general direction.

Photo by tablixdfh

Londoners are abuzz over two departures—one political; the other final.

1. On June 27 Tony Blair will stand down as Prime Minister. While it’s not yet official that Gordon Brown will be elected by the Labour Party as the new PM, it’s widely expected that Brown will follow Blair at No. 10 Downing Street. You can access Blair’s resignation speech here and follow coverage of Brown’s campaign and Blair’s final days right here.

2. It appears that fashion icon Isabella Blow died after ingesting weedkiller at her Gloucestershire home last week. It was originally thought she had died of ovarian cancer, but reports have since revealed that she committed suicide. Read her late husband’s touching remembrance in the Sunday Times.

Photo courtesy of Monarch

Low-cost carrier Monarch is partnering with music label Hed Kandi on flights between four UK airports and Ibiza this summer. The house music label’s specially-liveried planes will allow dance-crazed Brits the opportunity to begin feeling the Ibiza magic long before they arrive on the White Island. The partnership ties in nicely with the music label’s Ibiza summer residencies.

Our favorite part of the whole shebang? The Fly Kandi site, which reminds us of an exploded Easter egg.