Why this ride
From Pushkin it runs 261 km to Pushkin; allow about 3 h 44 of riding. It goes by way of Northern battery No. 4, The Road of Life and Alexander Palace and park. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Alexander Palace and park and The Road of Life
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 261 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 44
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
Scenic road chapters
A-121 Ladoga and Sortavala
The ride follows A-121 Ladoga and Sortavala for 66 km.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 66 km
- Named road
- A-121 Ladoga and Sortavala
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Alexander Palace and park
Few Russian palaces have a story as heavy as the Alexander Palace in Pushkin, the town that grew around the imperial estate of Tsarskoye Selo, south of St Petersburg. Catherine the Great had it built for her grandson Alexander, the future Alexander I, by the Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi in the 1790s, a restrained neoclassical building with a long colonnade facing the park. Its fame, though, comes from the last family to live in it. Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra preferred it to the grand Winter Palace, and they raised their five children here until the revolution of 1917, when the family was placed under house arrest in the palace before being sent east.
Read the complete Alexander Palace and park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Alexander Palace and park is where the day begins. Next is Northern battery No. 4, 76 km on.
2. Northern battery No. 4
Kotlin Island lies in the Gulf of Finland, at the entrance to the Neva, and its job for three centuries has been to guard St Petersburg from the sea. Peter the Great founded the naval base of Kronstadt here in 1704, and the island, long and narrow, was ringed with forts, batteries and artificial islands. The northern batteries, of which No. 4 is one, belong to that long chain, built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the guns grew bigger and the ships more dangerous. They are low, grass-covered earthworks and brick casemates facing the water, and on grey days the place has a lonely, military feel. The sea is shallow here and often frozen in winter.
Read the complete Northern battery No. 4 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Northern battery No. 4 comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Road of Life.
3. The Road of Life
On the south-eastern shore of Lake Ladoga, east of Saint Petersburg, a road ends at the water. This is the start of the Road of Life, the supply route across the ice that kept Leningrad alive during the siege of 1941 to 1944. The siege lasted 872 days, from September 1941 to January 1944, and it cut the city off from nearly everything except the lake. In the first winter, when Ladoga froze, trucks and horse-drawn sledges began to cross the ice with food and fuel, and on the return journey they carried out women, children and the sick. Lorries broke through the ice, and bombing and artillery attacked the route, but it kept going.
Read the complete The Road of Life write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 175 km into the recorded legs you reach The Road of Life. Next is back through Northern battery No. 4, 76 km on.
4. Back to Alexander Palace and park
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alexander Palace and park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Northern battery No. 4, late in the day. Next is Alexander Palace and park.
5. Alexander Palace and park
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alexander Palace and park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Alexander Palace and park. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Alexander Palace and park to Northern battery No. 4
Alexander Palace and park → Northern battery No. 4 is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Northern battery No. 4 to The Road of Life
Northern battery No. 4 → The Road of Life is 109 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Road of Life to Back to Alexander Palace and park
The Road of Life → Back to Alexander Palace and park is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.