The English Park and The Maximov's Datcha

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. The English Park

   Everybody who comes to Peterhof heads for the fountains, the Grand Cascade and the gilded Samson tearing open the lion's jaws, and almost nobody walks the few hundred metres west into the English Park. That is their loss. Catherine the Great, who found Peter the Great's straight avenues and clipped hedges old-fashioned, had this park laid out from 1779 by the English gardener James Meader, in the natural landscape style then sweeping Europe: a chain of ponds, meadows, clumps of oak and lime, and paths that wander rather than march. It belongs to the World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Saint Petersburg and its ring of palaces and estates.

   Read the complete The English Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The English Park is where the day begins. Next is Oranienbaumsky Springboard.

2. 2. Oranienbaumsky Springboard

   The Oranienbaum Springboard is not a single building but a piece of ground, and once you know the story the low woods and fields south of the Gulf of Finland look entirely different. In September 1941, as German and Finnish forces closed the ring around Leningrad, a pocket of coast around Oranienbaum, today's Lomonosov, held out. It was cut off from the city by land, supplied across the water and under the guns of Kronstadt, and it never fell. In January 1944 the Second Shock Army broke out of this pocket as one jaw of the offensive that finally lifted the siege.

   Read the complete Oranienbaumsky Springboard write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Oranienbaumsky Springboard comes up about 13 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Maximov's Datcha.

3. 3. The Maximov's Datcha

   The south shore of the Gulf of Finland west of St Petersburg is a strip of dachas, palaces and old military ground, and the place marked here as Maximov's Datcha sits within it, a couple of kilometres from the town of Lomonosov.

   Read the complete The Maximov's Datcha write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 32 km into the recorded legs you reach The Maximov's Datcha. Next is back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard.

4. 4. back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Oranienbaumsky Springboard write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard, late in the day. Next is The English Park.

5. 5. The English Park

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The English Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at The English Park. That is the ride.