CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
215 km from Krasnoye Selo to Krasnoye Selo, about 3 h 50 of riding. It goes by way of Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk, The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha, Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c and back through The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 39 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
South-west of St Petersburg, the flat land of the Neva lowland rises unexpectedly into a pair of wooded hills, the Duderhof heights, the highest ground for many kilometres around. Their name comes from Finnish, and they have long been a landmark, used for military observation since the eighteenth century and as a summer retreat for the people of the capital. In the nineteenth century, the imperial army held its summer manoeuvres around nearby Krasnoye Selo, and the officers' villas and parade grounds became part of the social life of St Petersburg.
Read the complete Dudergof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dudergof is where the day begins. Next is Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk.
Pavlovsk was a gift. In 1777 Catherine the Great gave her son Paul, the future emperor, a stretch of forest and meadow south of Saint Petersburg, and he and his wife Maria Feodorovna turned it into one of the most elegant country residences in Russia. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron designed the palace, a pale yellow building with a shallow dome and a colonnade, and the park, which spreads over some six hundred hectares, was laid out in the English landscape manner, with winding paths, little bridges and pavilions half hidden among the trees. It is among the largest landscape parks in Europe, and walking in it on a quiet morning is a joy.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha.
Here the Neva is a working river, broad and fast, carrying barges and the outflow of Lake Ladoga past factories and housing blocks on its way to the city. Yet on the left bank near Ust-Izhora, among the industry, survive the traces of a much older riverside life: the country houses, datchas in the old aristocratic sense, that Saint Petersburg's wealthy families built along the Neva in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with parks running down to the water. The ensemble of the Zinoviev datcha is one of them, included in the long list of estates, parks and buildings that make up the World Heritage Site around the historic centre of Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha. Next is Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c, 29 km on.
The fortress at Shlisselburg is built on an island in the river, at the very spot where the Neva leaves Lake Ladoga, and whoever held it held the water road between the Baltic and the heart of Russia. The Novgorodians built the first wooden walls in 1323, and called the place Oreshek, which means little nut, after the island's shape. Over the next four centuries it passed between Russians and Swedes, until in 1702 Peter the Great stormed it on his way to the sea, and renamed it Schlusselburg, the key fortress, a key that would unlock the Baltic. Within a year he had founded Saint Petersburg downstream.
Read the complete Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c, about halfway. Next is back through The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha sits at 117 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk comes up about 187 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dudergof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dudergof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dudergof closes the day.
Dudergof → Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk → The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha → Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c → back through The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Ensemble of the Zinoviev's Datcha → back through Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historical Centre of the Town of Pavlovsk → Dudergof is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.