CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 372 km round trip from Kronstadt - roughly 6 h 01 in the saddle. The stops in between: Petrovsky, The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag, The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town and The Blocade Ring. It keeps close to the shore for long stretches.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 34 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Shanetz sounds like a word for a small redoubt, and that is roughly what these coastal forts were: low, squat batteries put on islets and spits to cover the fairways into the Gulf of Finland. This one lies in the western approaches of Kotlin, on the shoals north of the island, and it belongs to the great ring of defences that earned Kronstadt its nickname as the key to Petersburg. The forts earned their keep during the Crimean War, when Allied ships came up the Baltic, took a look at the defences and decided not to risk an attack.
Read the complete The Coastal fort “Shanetz” write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Coastal fort “Shanetz” is where the day begins. Next is Petrovsky.
The label is a puzzle: Petrovsky could refer to any of a dozen places in a city named after Peter the Great, and it is safest to treat it as a viewpoint on his great project, the opening of Russia to the sea. Whatever the exact spot, the landscape is unmistakable: flat shore, reeds, wide grey water, and on the horizon the dome of the Kronstadt cathedral and the line of the flood barrier.
Read the complete Petrovsky write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Petrovsky comes up 37 km in. Next is The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag.
Ropsha is one of those places where the scenery is gentle and the history is anything but. The village sits on the low Izhora Upland southwest of St Petersburg, between Krasnoe Selo and the coast road at Lomonosov, and the palace that gives the estate its name looks down over a chain of spring-fed ponds and a slow, wooded park. It was here, in July 1762, that the freshly deposed Emperor Peter III was held after his wife Catherine seized the throne, and here that he died a few days later under circumstances nobody at court cared to explain. Catherine became "the Great"; Ropsha became a footnote with a chill on it.
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.
74 km in you reach The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag. Next is The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town.
Between 1941 and 1944 Tsarskoye Selo lay behind German lines, and when the Red Army came back the Catherine Palace was a shell. The Amber Room's panels had vanished, the park trees had been cut for firewood, and most of the interiors were ash. The restoration that followed, and the new Amber Room that finally reopened in 2003, make this one of the most remarkable rebuilding jobs in Europe. The town, now called Pushkin after the poet who studied at its Lyceum, is part of the UNESCO listing for the historic centre of Saint Petersburg, and the ensemble of palaces, pavilions and parks around it is the reason to come.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town, about halfway. Next is The Blocade Ring.
The Blockade Ring stands on the south bank of the Neva, east of Saint Petersburg, close to where the Road of Life began its journey toward Lake Ladoga. It commemorates the siege of Leningrad, which lasted from September 1941 to January 1944, roughly 872 days, and the corridor that kept the city alive. When Shlisselburg fell in September 1941, the city was cut off by land, and the only lifeline ran across Ladoga, by boat in summer and over the ice in winter.
Read the complete The Blocade Ring write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Blocade Ring sits at 148 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town comes up 184 km in. 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.
221 km in you reach back through The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag. Next is back through Petrovsky.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Petrovsky write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Petrovsky, late in the day. Next is The Coastal fort “Shanetz”.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Coastal fort “Shanetz” write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 372 km.
The Coastal fort “Shanetz” → Petrovsky is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petrovsky → The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag → The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town → The Blocade Ring is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Blocade Ring → back through The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Palace and Park Ensembles of the Town → back through The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag is 35 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 Petrovsky is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Petrovsky → The Coastal fort “Shanetz” is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.