Most of the hotels and guesthouses along the King Ludwig Way offer the fairly standard continental breakfast. A few different sliced processed meats, slices of processed cheese and bread rolls and the usual extras. The Hotel Zur Post in Erling, near Andechs offered a little bit more. Proper soft cheese that you cut off yourself, balls of goat's cheese, hard boiled eggs cut in half with a blob of something creamy on top, smoked salmon, stuffed peppers; it was all very tempting. And I was tempted. I have to admit I was a little bit greedy and put so much on the plate I had to have a separate plate for my roll. I sat down at the table and noticed I didn't have a fork. I glanced around the table. None of the other place settings had a fork. I looked at the other tables. No forks. I looked around the breakfast buffet bar. No forks. I began to realise that eating breakfast without a fork was some sort of bizarre Bavarian custom. I looked around the other guests who were eating breakfast. Actually I didn't see anybody eating breakfast. I saw them drinking coffee and fruit juice but I didn't get any clues from them. Anyway how difficult could it be? The meat and the cheese were quite easy. Balance a slice on your knife and put it into your roll. The half a boiled egg with the blob on top wasn't too bad - just pick it up in your fingers and pop it in. Stuffed peppers (the long thin ones) were a bit of a challenge, and like children, you can never eat a whole one. I decided to pick it up in my fingers and bite off a suitably sized portion that wouldn't make me choke. But what about the smoked salmon? I didn't really want to put that into a roll so I saved this 'til last, picked it up in my fingers and popped it in. The only issue then is that you smell like Captain Birdseye and have to wash your hands before meeting anybody you know. My other breakfast dilemma was the boiled eggs. How can you tell if an egg is hard boiled or soft boiled? If it is sitting in a pan of hot water you would think it would be hard boiled. I began to get suspicious when the egg started to fall apart as I attempted to peel off the shell and my suspicions were confirmed when the yolk shot out like paint from a paint ball. If the boiled eggs are sitting on a bed of hot sand surely they must be hard boiled? Afraid not. The only time I had a hard boiled egg was when it was served in an egg cup. So my advice for eating breakfast in Bavaria is:

• Take a Swiss army knife with fork attachment

• Avoid boiled eggs, assume they are soft boiled, or wear a bib!