The Attersee is the biggest lake in the Salzkammergut, and Abtsdorf sits on its western shore, a settlement so small the label can get away with a Roman numeral. In this case the III means a third spot among a cluster of lake access points, so what you are really visiting is the shoreline between Attersee village and Weyregg, where the water is startlingly clear and the mountains stand up behind the opposite bank.
That clarity is not an accident. The Attersee is deep and fed by cold mountain water, and for a long time it had a reputation as one of the cleanest large lakes in Austria. Swimmers and sailors have used it for generations. Gustav Klimt spent many summers on its shores, and some of his best-known landscape paintings were made on the lake and around Litzlberg, a short way along. You can see why a painter would sit here: the surface changes from steel to turquoise in half an hour as the clouds move.
For riding, the road along the lake is the attraction. It runs close to the water in places, with enough small bends and rises to keep you awake without needing anything dramatic, and the views open onto the Höllengebirge range to the east. Summer weekends can be busy with cars and cyclists, so weekday mornings or the shoulder seasons are kinder. In July and August thunderstorms build over the mountains in the afternoon and the temperature can drop a good deal in minutes, so keep a thin waterproof in the bag.
You will find small cafés and lakeside restaurants in Attersee and Weyregg, and the lake has public swimming spots dotted along the shore. For fuel, however, the villages here are small, so plan on Sankt Georgen im Attergau, about six kilometres away, or the larger town of Attnang-Puchheim some 19 km to the north, which has the full set of shops and filling stations. The lake fish, especially Reinanke, a type of whitefish, is on every menu in season and is simple and good. This is a place to slow down, with Salzburg just under an hour away and the mood of the Salzkammergut all around you.