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.
From Lebyazh’ye it runs 283 km to Lebyazh’ye; allow about 5 h 07 of riding. The stops in between: The Datcha of the Hospital, The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin, Highway Pushkin - Gatchina and Historical Centre of the Village of Streln. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 38 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, west of Saint Petersburg, a low strip of pine forest and sand runs for kilometres between the road and the sea. Fort Seraya Loshad, the Grey Horse, stands in this coastal country, eleven kilometres from the village of Lebyazhye, among a group of forts built for the defence of the capital and the naval base at Kronstadt.
Read the complete Fort «Seraya Loshad» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort «Seraya Loshad» is where the day begins. Next is The Datcha of the Hospital.
Somewhere between Bolshaya Izhora and Lomonosov, along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, stood a summer house known as the Datcha of the Hospital. The name suggests one of the many country retreats built along this coast in the nineteenth century, when the road west from St Petersburg was lined with the estates of the aristocracy, merchants and institutions. Few of these houses survive intact, and the exact remains of this one are hard to pin down; it is better to take it as a pause on one of the most historic stretches of shore in Russia.
Read the complete The Datcha of the Hospital write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Datcha of the Hospital comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin.
On the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, between St Petersburg and Peterhof, the old road runs past a string of palaces and estates that the Russian elite built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to be near the sea and the court. Among them, near Strelna, stands the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, a monastery founded in the eighteenth century as a dependency of the great Trinity Lavra of St Sergius near Moscow. It is part of the wide UNESCO listing of St Petersburg's historic centre and the monuments around it.
Read the complete The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin. Next is Highway Pushkin - Gatchina.
Two imperial palaces lie at either end of this road, and between them the flat country south of Saint Petersburg still carries the scars of the twentieth century's worst siege. At the northern end is Pushkin, the former Tsarskoye Selo, where the Catherine Palace stretches its blue and white façade for hundreds of metres and the reconstructed Amber Room glows inside. At the southern end is Gatchina, Paul I's palace, grey and fortress-like, in a park of lakes and islands. The historic road between them is one of the many components of the World Heritage Site of the historic centre of Saint Petersburg and its related monuments.
Read the complete Highway Pushkin - Gatchina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Highway Pushkin - Gatchina, about halfway. Next is Historical Centre of the Village of Streln.
Strelna is where Peter the Great first looked at the Gulf of Finland from the south shore and decided that his new capital needed a country palace worthy of Versailles. He began a residence here in the early eighteenth century, before settling on Peterhof, a few kilometres to the west, and the estate was later developed by his daughter Elizabeth and then given to the Grand Duke Konstantin, whose name it still bears in the Konstantinovsky Palace. In the 2000s the palace was restored and today it is used for state receptions and conferences, with the grounds open to visitors on a part-time basis. The historic centre of the village is a small area of old streets near the shore.
Read the complete Historical Centre of the Village of Streln write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historical Centre of the Village of Streln sits at 137 km, about halfway. Next is back through Highway Pushkin - Gatchina.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Highway Pushkin - Gatchina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Highway Pushkin - Gatchina comes up about 176 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 212 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin. Next is back through The Datcha of the Hospital.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Datcha of the Hospital write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Datcha of the Hospital, late in the day. Next is Fort «Seraya Loshad».
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort «Seraya Loshad» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 283 km.
Fort «Seraya Loshad» → The Datcha of the Hospital is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Datcha of the Hospital → The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin → Highway Pushkin - Gatchina is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Highway Pushkin - Gatchina → Historical Centre of the Village of Streln is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historical Centre of the Village of Streln → back through Highway Pushkin - Gatchina is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Highway Pushkin - Gatchina → back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin → back through The Datcha of the Hospital is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Datcha of the Hospital → Fort «Seraya Loshad» is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.