Morbisch am See

Mörbisch is the last village on the western shore before the Hungarian border and is built in a distinctive way: long narrow plots with whitewashed single-storey houses running back from the street, joined by arched gateways, with the courtyards - the Hofgassen - forming lanes of their own behind the frontages, and maize hung in yellow bunches to dry along the walls in autumn, which is the image the village is known by. It is a wine village. Out on the lake, a floating stage seating some six thousand has held the Seefestspiele since 1957, an operetta festival running through July and August with the reeds and water behind the set. The Hungarian border crossing to Fertőrákos is a few hundred metres away and open for walkers and cyclists.

What you actually see

• Hofgassen courtyard lanes - whitewashed houses on long plots behind arched gates.
• Maize hung to dry - yellow bunches along the walls in autumn.
• The floating operetta stage - the Seefestspiele on the lake since 1957.
• A border crossing on foot - the path into Hungary at Fertőrákos.

When to go

May to September; July and August for the festival. A day.

Honest expectations

Festival nights fill the village and accommodation for miles. Performances are operetta in German. The lake shore is beyond a belt of reeds, not at the village edge.

Nearby

Rust is north; Fertőrákos and Sopron are over the Hungarian border.