Why this ride
64 km from Peterhof to Peterhof, about 1 h 07 of riding. On the way it passes Oranienbaumsky Springboard, The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag and back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The English Park and The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 64 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 07
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
For about 13 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.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 13 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 17 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.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 19 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
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. 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 Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag.
3. 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.
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 Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag. Next is back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard.
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. 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.
Leg by leg
The English Park to Oranienbaumsky Springboard
The English Park → Oranienbaumsky Springboard is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oranienbaumsky Springboard to The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag
Oranienbaumsky Springboard → The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag to back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard
The Palace and Park Ensemble of the Villag → back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard to The English Park
back through Oranienbaumsky Springboard → The English Park is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.