Peterhof is famous for its fountains, and the road called Gostilitskoe runs along the high ground behind the palace, where the water begins. When Peter the Great decided in the early eighteenth century to build a rival to Versailles on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, the engineers had a problem, because the ground at the shore is flat, and a fountain needs a head of water. They found springs and ponds on the Ropsha heights, a few kilometres inland, and built a system of canals, reservoirs and pipes that carried water downhill to the palace by gravity alone, without a single pump. That system, the Water-bringing system of Peterhof, still works, and it is a marvel of its time.
The fountains themselves, which number in the hundreds, include the Samson, a golden figure tearing open a lion's jaws in front of the Grand Palace, which commemorates the Russian victory at Poltava on St Samson's day in 1709. The park runs down to the sea, and the Maritime Channel, a straight canal, brings the water to the gulf. During the Second World War the palace was gutted by German forces, and it was rebuilt from photographs and memory. It is one of the great restoration stories of the century.
This is gentle country, a plain of fields and birch woods rising slowly to the Izhora uplands, with old estates and small villages along the road. The soil is poor and the winters are long, but in June the meadows are loud with insects and the light is high and clear. Oranienbaum, now called Lomonosov, is a short ride along the coast, and has a palace of Prince Menshikov, Peter's favourite, that survived the war intact.
The road itself is straightforward riding: broad, flat and fairly fast, with a decent surface in summer and potholes after the thaw. Traffic is heavy on summer weekends with tourists heading for the fountains, so go early. Peterhof, Petrodvorets and Lomonosov have fuel, supermarkets and cafés, and Saint Petersburg is half an hour away. Entry conditions can change, so check what applies to you. The fountains run from late spring to early autumn, and are switched off for the winter.