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 344 km round trip from Pavlovsk - roughly 4 h 56 in the saddle. It goes by way of Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov, The Road of Life and back through Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. «The Menagerie»
Pavlovsk is the least showy of the great palaces around St Petersburg, and for that reason the pleasantest. The estate lies a few kilometres from Pushkin, on the Slavyanka river, in a park that spreads over hundreds of hectares of woodland, meadow and winding water. Catherine the Great gave the land to her son Paul in 1777, and the Scottish architect Charles Cameron, later joined by Brenna and others, gave it its look, with pavilions, bridges and a colonnaded Temple of Friendship set among the trees.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
«The Menagerie» is where the day begins. Next is Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov.
2. Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov
Lomonosov was called Oranienbaum until 1948, and its history is a story of ambition. Prince Alexander Menshikov, Peter the Great's close friend and favourite, began a grand palace here in the early eighteenth century, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, and the name, meaning orange tree, came from its greenhouses. Later, the estate passed to the imperial family, and in the 1760s Catherine the Great had the Chinese Palace built in the park, a small, richly decorated pavilion with painted ceilings and exotic interiors. The ensemble is part of the UNESCO listing of Saint Petersburg and related monuments.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Road of Life.
3. The Road of Life
On the south-eastern shore of Lake Ladoga, east of Saint Petersburg, a road ends at the water. This is the start of the Road of Life, the supply route across the ice that kept Leningrad alive during the siege of 1941 to 1944. The siege lasted 872 days, from September 1941 to January 1944, and it cut the city off from nearly everything except the lake. In the first winter, when Ladoga froze, trucks and horse-drawn sledges began to cross the ice with food and fuel, and on the return journey they carried out women, children and the sick. Lorries broke through the ice, and bombing and artillery attacked the route, but it kept going.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at «The Menagerie». That is the ride.
Leg by leg
«The Menagerie» to Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov
«The Menagerie» → Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov to The Road of Life
Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov → The Road of Life is 110 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Road of Life to back through Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov
The Road of Life → back through Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov is 120 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov to «The Menagerie»
back through Historical Centre of the Town of Lomonosov → «The Menagerie» is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.