Fruhstuck

As on most holidays, food did figure quite largely, not least because we needed pit-stops during all the sight-seeing.

But one of the most important meals was breakfast.  In England the term "Continental Breakfast" has a somewhat dismal sound: a limp croissant, a roll, possibly some fruit.

But in our hotel in Austria, and even, it has to be said, on the sleeper train itself, breakfast was a substantial meal.

On offer were a range of cold meats and cheeses

Bircher muesli, yoghurt and fruit

Flavoured oils and essences

Sausages, scrambled eggs and bacon

Bread, rolls fresh croissants

Jams from the Tyrol, and

a whole Carpathian honeycomb.

Freshly made sponge cake dotted with plums - who eats this for breakfast?

I watched as an elderly German munched his way stolidly through plate after plate: a cooked breakfast, cold meats, two separate platefuls of bread and wedges of cheese.  He was eating for three - or possibly eating all his meals for the day at one sitting.