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 Kommunar it runs 330 km to Kommunar; allow about 4 h 32 of riding. It goes by way of S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui», Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c and back through S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui». The line favours views over speed.
For about 64 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
102 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
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 is where the day begins. Next is S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui», 82 km on.
Samuel Greig was a Scottish naval officer from Inverkeithing who rose to become an admiral in Catherine the Great's navy, and in 1788 he fought the Battle of Hogland against the Swedes in the Gulf of Finland, a few weeks before dying of fever at Reval. He is the S.K. Greig of the label, Samuil Karlovich in Russian style, and an estate on this coast called Sans Ennui is associated with the family, French for without boredom, a charming name for a country house. The site lies near Bolshaya Izhora, west of Lomonosov, where the land is flat, wooded and close to the water, and the Izhora river flows toward the gulf.
Read the complete S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c, 82 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.
about 165 km into the recorded legs you reach Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c. Next is back through S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui», 81 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui», late in the day. Next is 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 at Highway Pushkin - Gatchina. That is the ride.
Highway Pushkin - Gatchina → S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» → Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c is 101 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Schlisselburg. Old Ladoga and New Ladoga c → back through S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through S.K.Grieg's Estate «Sans Ennui» → Highway Pushkin - Gatchina is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.