CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 200 km round trip from Tallinn - roughly 6 h 11 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fortress of Suomenlinna, Finlandia Hall, Social Insurance Institution Main Office and back through Finlandia Hall. It crosses from Estonia into Finland - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Tallinn is a medieval city that kept its walls, and the thick stone towers and steep red roofs of its old town make it among the best-preserved in northern Europe. It grew rich as a Hanseatic port, trading with Novgorod and Lübeck, and the merchants' houses and guildhalls built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries still line the cobbled lanes. Above it all stands Toompea, the hill of the castle and the parliament, with the onion domes of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built in the 1890s when Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, still dominating the view.
Read the complete Tallinn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tallinn is where the day begins. Next is Fortress of Suomenlinna.
Suomenlinna is a fortress on a cluster of islands in front of Helsinki, reached in about fifteen minutes by public ferry from the Market Square. The Swedes began building it in 1748, when Finland was part of their kingdom and the Russian threat was growing, and they called it Sveaborg, the Fortress of the Swedes. The architect Augustin Ehrensvard designed the plan, and he is buried on the island. Granite ramparts, bastions, tunnels and storehouses are laid out among rocky islets, and a wide-angled view of the fortress from the sea is impressive.
Read the complete Fortress of Suomenlinna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortress of Suomenlinna comes up 29 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortress of Suomenlinna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least 80 km in you reach Fortress of Suomenlinna. Next is Finlandia Hall.
Finlandia Hall stands on the shore of Töölö Bay in the middle of Helsinki, a long white building by Alvar Aalto that opened in 1971. Aalto was Finland's greatest architect, and the hall is typical of his late work, a sculpted block with a sloping roof and a facade of white marble that has a surprisingly soft quality in the Nordic light. The marble has had a hard time with Helsinki's climate, because the thin slabs bowed in the cold and had to be replaced in a restoration. The hall is a concert and congress centre, and it was here in 1975 that European leaders, together with the United States, Canada and the Soviet Union, signed the Helsinki Final Act, a milestone in Cold War diplomacy.
Read the complete Finlandia Hall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finlandia Hall, about halfway. Next is Social Insurance Institution Main Office.
Social Insurance Institution Main Office sits at 116 km, about halfway. Next is back through Finlandia Hall.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Finlandia Hall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Finlandia Hall comes up 144 km in. Next is back through Fortress of Suomenlinna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortress of Suomenlinna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
173 km in you reach back through Fortress of Suomenlinna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortress of Suomenlinna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fortress of Suomenlinna, late in the day. Next is Tallinn.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tallinn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 200 km.
Tallinn → Fortress of Suomenlinna is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Fortress of Suomenlinna → Finlandia Hall is 6 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Finlandia Hall → back through Fortress of Suomenlinna is 6 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortress of Suomenlinna → Tallinn is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.