The Pertisau lakeshore

Pertisau sits on a green alluvial fan in the western bay, the only place on a nine-kilometre lake where the mountains step back far enough to leave flat ground. That geography is what makes it useful: a level lakeside promenade about a kilometre long, a strip of lawn and old trees between it and the hotels, and a run of wooden jetties and boat moorings pushing out into the water.

From the jetties the lake opens north-east down its full length, with the Karwendel wall — Seekarspitze, Seeberg — going straight up out of the water on the far side, unbuilt and unbroken. Turn the other way and the Rofan sits behind the village. Very few alpine lakes offer a foreground you can walk to in flat shoes and a background this vertical.

The bay faces east, so morning light comes across the water into the shore and the far Karwendel wall is lit while the promenade is still soft; by late afternoon the mountain behind Pertisau throws the shore into shadow while the opposite side is still bright. Plan the shore early and the far side late.

Summer is sailing, rowing boats and swimming, and the promenade is busy from eleven onwards. The shoulder months are near-empty and the water is at its clearest. In winter the village turns to skiing and cross-country, the jetties stand in half-frozen shallows and the whole bay reads colder and much emptier.