1. Thu 19 Apr – London-Paris Eurostar – £73.00 (€86.37), standard class Eurostar. Booked 3 weeks ahead of the journey, so rather costly. Booked through Eurostar.com
2. Thu 19 Apr – Paris-Berlin – €56.75, 6-berth couchette CityNightLine. Booked 3 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
3. Fri 20 Apr – Berlin-Köln-Brussels – €123.00, 1st class ICE (EuropaSpezial – all 2nd class EuropaSpezial tickets sold out). Booked 3 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
4. Thu 26 Apr – Brussels-Köln – €29.75, 2nd class ICE (EuropaSpezial). Booked 7 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
5. Thu 26 Apr – Köln-Copenhagen-Stockholm – €79.25, 6-berth couchette CityNightLine + SJ X2000 2nd class (EuropaSpezial). Booked 7 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
6. Mon 30 Apr – Stockholm-Copenhagen-Hamburg-Berlin – €74.50, 1st class X2000 + ICE (EuropaSpezial). Booked 7 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
7. Mon 07 May – Berlin-Köln-Brussels(-London) – €48.00, 2nd class ICE (EuropaSpezial). Originally booked 10 weeks ahead of the journey and booked through to London. Now to be used only as far as Brussels. bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
8. Tue 08 May – (Aachen-)Brussels-London – €44.00, 2nd class Eurostar (EuropaSpezial). Booked Aachen-London to profit from the DB Eurostar special prices documented here. Booked 7 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25

All tickets are eTickets except Stockholm-Copenhagen-Hamburg-Berlin where a paper ticket was mailed to me. All prices include seat reservations. Each line above represents a separate booking made. EuropaSpezial only works for journeys starting or ending in Germany – hence the two bookings for 26 April.

It would have the architecture of Heathrow Terminal 5. It would have the fast security checks of London City. The general ambience of Stockholm Arlanda. The modern art of Oslo Gardemoen. The shopping and connections to the city of Copenhagen Kastrup. The short walk to the gates of Berlin Tegel. The cleanliness of the toilets of Singapore. The rundown bizarreness of Altenburg. The order, peace and quiet of München. The onward rail connections of Frankfurt/Main. The flight approach of Rijeka.

1. Liège-Guillemins
This station trumps all others in the coolness stakes. The Caltrava-designed roof is stunning and the lines and vistas are a joy from any angle. All is not well with the station however – the wind howls across the platforms in winter, and shops and waiting spaces leave a lot to be desired! For more stunning pics see this page on Flickr.

2. St Pancras International
A brilliant and charming restoration of the old station, with the 1860s Trainshed painstakingly restored covering the platforms for Eurostar trains from Brussels and Paris. Below the platforms the shops are tastefully designed with an absence of the incessant advertising found elsewhere in London transport. People go to this station to go for a meal – that says it all. It’s wonderful.

3. Berlin Hauptbahnhof
The ultimate modern station. 4 high level rail platforms run east-west and 8 low level platforms run north-south, with a cavernous hall covering the middle of the station. While the connections to the rest of Berlin are not as good as they could be yet, the station is a fitting monument to the reunified Berlin.

4. Budapest Keleti
If film producers want an untainted old-style station for a film set, it’s to Keleti that they go. The classic old station that still serves most of the Hungarian capital’s major international expresses is a bit rough at the edges, but take time to admire the architecture and contemplate rail travel in times past.

5. New York Grand Central Terminal
The main concourse, pure and simple. 84 m long, 37 m wide and 38 m high, with a roof decorated with an astronomical painting. Sadly you’re unlikely to depart from Grand Central (it serves only a few commuter lines) but that concourse is iconic.

6. Antwerpen Centraal
An engineering masterpiece. Two levels of modern platforms have been built underneath the ground level platforms with their classic metal and glass cover. Not only this, but the lowest platforms are now also through platforms for trains bound for the Netherlands. A perfect combination of functionality and old and new.

7. Köln Hauptbahnhof
No journey from the west through to Germany ever seems to avoid Köln’s main station. The range of destinations is enormous, the station itself is in the shadow of Köln cathedral and departing trains cross the Hohenzollernbrücke over the Rhein, one of the most famous rail bridges in the world.

8. İstanbul Haydarpaşa
The classic station of the Middle East. With the waters of the Bosphorus on three sides and an old-world charm, this station was the point of departure for historic rail services through Turkey and on towards the Middle East. With High Speed Rail coming to Turkey it will have new significance in future.

9. Kuala Lumpur
This station is included for its charming architecture alone, for it serves only commuter trains these days. But where else has such post-colonial splendour?

10. Lisboa Oriente
Another choice in terms of architecture (more on Flickr here), the tree-like metal beams supporting the roof make this a stunning modern design.

11. Maastricht
A slightly odd final choice. But what other station has slightly foreboding stained glass in the main hall while you’re waiting for your train?

UPDATE – the list has provoked plenty of debate on Twitter. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai looks cool, but I have never been there, hence it’s not included. Neither is Estación del Norte in Valencia, for the same reason. @maddingkraut on Twitter pointed out that I missed Leipzig, and I am tempted to agree with him, perhaps replacing Köln on my list. Some honourable mentions should also go to the Paris stations Nord, Est, Lyon and Austerlitz – all have some charming aspects, but lack in other ways. And Copenhagen Hovedbanegård has a cool roof, like a barn.

Photo Credits – all Creative Commons Licensed from Flickr
Kuala Lumpur by Eric @ Flickr October 14, 2006
Grand Central by bhermans April 24, 2009
Antwerpen Centraal by The Wolf May 20, 2009
Lisboa Oriente by Bushrat Steve February 3, 2009
Liege Guillemins by Simon Blackley September 27, 2009
Berlin Hbf by Michell Zappa November 23, 2008
Haydarpasa Istanbul by CyberMacs March 4, 2005
St Pancras by freefotouk January 16, 2008
Budapest Keleti by James Guppy February 19, 2011
Maastricht by dtsomp February 14, 2010
Köln Hbf by DanieleCivello October 24, 2010

Only the problem is that so damned few of these things relate to politics. How many things that really make you sit up and think, inspire you, have there been in politics recently? The only things that have come close for me in the short term have been Radek Sikorski’s Berlin speech, and Jack Layton’s Letter to Canadians. Stoltenberg’s Til Deg made me smile with its neat combination of tech and politics. But beyond that I am absolutely non-plussed. At least I’m not alone in this.

Today in the UK we have a case in point. Purported to be one of the thinkers of the Labour Party, Gregg McClymont has written a pamphlet (with Ben Jackson) summarised on Comment is Free with the piece entitled “How Labour can avoid the Tory trap“. I don’t actually disagree with the tactical substance of what they write, but the style and approach is so narrow, so insider orientated, so lacking in optimism in its articulation. “A patriotic appeal for national growth could highlight the divisiveness and inefficiency of Conservative political economy” they argue. Really? Can we not do any better than that? The same tired appeals to worn out nationalist rhetoric? As innovation and thinking proceed apace across the rest of our society, it seems our politics has failed to move on. Perhaps it was always thus. But where is my role within this morass?

Today we departed from Frankfurt on a series 403 ICE that can’t operate under Belgian 3kv DC current, so we had to cross platforms at Düren onto a waiting series 406 train that has waited 20 minutes before departing. The reason for this – as so often for this route – is presumably technical problems with the series 406 trains, with a 406 doing Brussels-Düren-Brussels and a 403 Frankfurt-Düren-Frankfurt.

The problem today was hence known right from departure in Frankfurt/Main (and @DB_bahn confirmed it to me on Twitter), but no announcement was made until after Köln – essentially the train manager was telling untruths about the destination until then… The first rule of transport customer service is to inform people what is going on – in the train DB failed to do that.

More generally, in the past I’ve had trains cancelled completely (and without warning, and without any alternative transport means provided), trains that stop at Aachen while the driver has to re-boot some computer systems and a warning voice blares out “Störung, Störung, Störung“, trains that have been re-routed onto the old lines in Belgium, and – at the very least – nagging delays of between 5 and 20 minutes. I do not currently recall the last time I took the ICE on this route and completed the journey without some sort of problem. As if to compound matters, DB increased its service on the route from 3 to 4 trains a day at the end of 2010.

Essentially it strikes me that the service is part of DB’s attempts to gain market share on the route, preparing the ground for through services to London from December 2013. Cheap tickets on the route are surely part of that strategy too.

At least through services to London will use the new series 407 trains, but for the moment persistent technological problems have not been solved, and today and past experience shows there is also scant attention to customer service.

Seriously DB, if you’re going to be a serious rival to Eurostar, you’re going to have to do better than this.

On an evening jog through the city autumn leaves crunched underfoot along the riverside, with the smell of roasting chestnuts drifting from the small wooden huts selling them to passers-by.

Dressed warm against the chill, dozens of people enjoyed the orange setting sun in Maček and the other cafés beside the water, while joggers preparing for next week’s marathon here passed. The evening was spent drinking local white wine and catching up with friends here I haven’t seen for a few years.

My hotel, just towards the station from Tromostovje, is calm and a little old fashioned, the staff slightly distanced and retro. Elderly couples sip local wines as cyclists pedal serenely along the street outside.

In short it’s hard to surpass Ljubljana in the early autumn. The calm, the serenity, the cafés, the small and manageable nature of the place. It couldn’t be more different from the gauche of Dubai from last week. It’s not hard to work out which one I prefer.

The customer service at the hotel where I stayed was better than anything I’ve ever experienced, the pathway beside the marina is verdant with trees and fountains and the purring Metro with its spaceship like stations is not like anything I’ve ever seen. It also feels tremendously safe, everywhere, and – where the construction works are complete – everything is spotless.

In the words of one of the people from the company that had contracted me to work for 3 days in Dubai, it’s a country where anything seems possible. At one level that’s appealing as I sit at the airport writing this blog entry, heading back to a Europe beset by economic woes and a scant lack of confidence about the future.

But life is not only about the economy. It’s about the quality of our human relationships, our ability to relate to each other in a society based on universal values, and what those universal values are. At that level Europe, and even the UK, still excel.

The rules and social strata in UAE are crushing and depressing, and clear for all to see at the very start. At the top sit the locals, comprising less than 1/5 of the population. In the streets around Media City and the Marina they are seldom to be seen, and when seen there is a Filipino maid in tow. In second position are the expat Americans and Europeans in their 4x4s. But at least these people drive, rather than getting someone else to do it.

Further below are the Indians and Filipinos, the vast majority of the population, yet confined to service jobs (if they are lucky) or construction (if they are unlucky). I simplify to a certain extent, but try walking the streets north east of Al Jafiliya Metro and you will not see many caucasian faces or middle eastern headdresses, and the dismissive nature of many hotel guests towards service staff was unpleasant to see.

Then there are the rules of what is and is not allowed, starting online as that impacted my work. Some websites – like Orkut, the Brazilian equivalent of Facebook also popular in India – are completely blocked. Others such as Flickr and Skype work sometimes and not other times. Accessing obscure UK blogs (and, oddly Ed Balls’s website) would not work initially, presumably until some scan is complete by the powers that be, to then work a few hours later.

Offline, just as online, arbitrary and sometimes contradictory rules are everywhere. At the Mall of the Emirates, flash LCD screens warn shoppers to cover up at least shoulders and knees, while the shop behind the sign sells tarty dresses. Public signs of affection are supposedly frowned upon but raunchy music videos on satellite tv channels abound. Punishments for breaking the law are draconian, and even apply to the parents of children if it’s the child who accidentally does something untoward at school. For the UAE, homosexuality doesn’t exist (the words again of the people I was working with), and democracy and freedom of speech… don’t even go there.

Lastly the whole place is an environmental catastrophe. The Metro notwithstanding, it’s a city organised for cars, with huge distances and wide freeways. Everything is air conditioned – it has to be, else you would be a pool of sweat all the time. Building design does not seem to take the extremes of the climate into account when it’s possible to just add extra aircon units. The Mall of the Emirates even has an indoor ski slope. Dubai is one giant environmental crime.

So, far from being a land where everything is possible, it’s a land where plenty is possible within rather narrow parameters that are not shaped by the people operating within them. Want to earn a fat wage and drive a huge car – sure, it’s your place. Get rich and show it off. But there’s more to life than that, and that’s what leaves me very uneasy about Dubai.

(pictures to follow)

But did I do it all wrong? And am I still doing it all wrong?

The point of my visit is an example. At 15:30 this afternoon I’ll cross the start line for the Berlin Inline Skate marathon. I’ll complete the 42km in about 1 hour and 20 minutes, all being well, placing me among the better skaters. But I’m not going to be right up with the best of them because I do not have the dedication to give my life over to the sport. I may well not be skilled enough either, but I’ve never got to the stage to really know.

Conversely a few thousand Labour Party members will be congregating today in Liverpool for Labour Party Conference. I’ll be there tomorrow, for 3 days, but if I were really dedicated to the pursuit of a career in politics I should be there for every moment, tweeting sycophantically on #lab11 and schmoozing with the top brass rather than growing frustrated at the same old talking heads blathering away at the fringe events.

Professionally, looking at it one way, things have not moved on either – I worked freelance for the first time in 2002 (just after my first Berlin stint), and I still am, to all intents and purposes, a freelancer. Some of the projects I do are a little more responsible these days, but beyond that…?

Then, lastly, there’s the matter of place. 12 months ago I moved on from Brussels, and considered Berlin as a place to live. I thought London was a better bet, professionally. That may indeed eventually prove to be the case, and there are other up-sides of the choice that I could not have foreseen, but being back in Berlin makes me wonder once more whether I actually made the right choice.

Perhaps it’s not right to say I’m doing everything wrong, but I do feel I’m doing everything by halves. What should I really get my teeth stuck into? I don’t know the answer to that just at the moment, and it’s nagging at me.