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.
A 225 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 3 h 30 in the saddle. It goes by way of The Water-bringing system of Peterhof, The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag, Dudergof and back through The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 57 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.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 26 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
On the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, the Primorskoye Highway runs from St Petersburg through a string of resort villages, pine woods and sandy beaches toward Zelenogorsk and Vyborg. Northern Battery No. 5 belongs to the other side of the story, the chain of coastal defences that once guarded the sea approach to the city.
Read the complete Northern battery No. 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Northern battery No. 5 is where the day begins. Next is The Water-bringing system of Peterhof.
The fountains of Peterhof run without a single pump, and that is the cleverest thing about them. When Peter the Great planned his gardens in the 1710s and 1720s, engineers led by Vasily Tuvolkov worked out that the water of the Ropsha hills, about twenty kilometres to the south, stood high enough above the Gulf of Finland to feed the fountains by gravity alone. They dug canals, built ponds and laid pipes, so that the water flows from the heights to the Upper Garden and down to the Great Cascade, where it shoots high into the air. The system, still essentially the same, is part of the UNESCO listing for Saint Petersburg.
Read the complete The Water-bringing system of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Water-bringing system of Peterhof comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag.
Gostilitsy is a village on the Izhora Upland, west of Ropsha and south of Peterhof, and it is one of those places near St Petersburg where the imperial past hides behind fences and overgrown trees. The estate here is associated with Alexei Razumovsky, the Ukrainian Cossack singer who rose to become the favourite and, by many accounts, the secret husband of Empress Elizabeth in the eighteenth century. The palace and park ensemble that grew up around the manor included a house, a church, ponds and landscaped grounds fed by springs, and it is listed among the monuments of the historic centre of St Petersburg and related groups, a UNESCO site that includes many of the palaces and estates around the city.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag. Next is Dudergof.
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, about halfway. Next is back through The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag sits at 118 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Water-bringing system of Peterhof.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Water-bringing system of Peterhof write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Water-bringing system of Peterhof comes up about 183 km into the recorded legs. Next is Northern battery No. 5, 29 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Northern battery No. 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Northern battery No. 5 closes the day.
Northern battery No. 5 → The Water-bringing system of Peterhof is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Water-bringing system of Peterhof → The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag → Dudergof is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dudergof → back through The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag → back through The Water-bringing system of Peterhof is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Water-bringing system of Peterhof → Northern battery No. 5 is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.