The Mystery of the Wandering Wurst

It was a case that might well have caused Sherlock Holmes to remove his deerstalker and scratch his head - for a moment or two.

On the way to the station to catch our train for Zell am See we bought some bread rolls for lunch, and a sausage to cut up for the filling.

Our wurst, being of such handsome proportions, proved to be more than enough to go round, so we decided to keep the remainder to put in sandwiches another day. However, there was no fridge at the hostel so, to keep it cool overnight, we decided to put it on the window ledge outside, where it was prevented from rolling away by a metal grille. We checked on it the following morning, and it looked fine.

Half an hour later, we returned from breakfast and looked out of the window. But of our wurst there was no sign! What could have happened to it? We were sure we hadn't brought it in earlier, we knew it couldn't have rolled away, and the birds flying around were all far too small to have carried it off - had a fellow guest or member of staff somehow swiped it when our backs were turned? We were genuinely baffled.

The mystery was only solved when, looking out of the window later, a rather larger bird suddenly appeared and started pecking and pulling at something in the guttering, just out of sight. Something that looked a lot like the wrapper of our missing wurst!