The Podersdorf lighthouse

Podersdorf am See sits on the eastern shore and is the one village on the Neusiedler See with the open lake right at its feet: everywhere else a reed belt kilometres wide stands between the land and the water. The beach runs straight into the lake, and a mole runs out from it with a small red-and-white lighthouse at the end.

That lighthouse is the most photographed object on the lake, and it earns it. Nothing else stands vertical for thirty kilometres, so it reads clean against the water from any angle, and the walk out along the mole puts the tower, the pier and an unbroken horizon in one frame.

This is an east-shore location: sunrise comes up behind you over the Seewinkel and sunset goes down over the water on the far side. Both work, and the second is the postcard. The afternoon wind that makes this a sailing and surfing lake usually drops in the evening, and then the water goes glassy.

Summer is busy — this is the most visited village in Burgenland and the beach is full from June to August, with paid parking and paid access to the bathing area. September and October are warm and much quieter. In a hard winter the lake freezes and people walk and skate out past the lighthouse; check the current ice notices before doing that.