Why this ride
A 60 km round trip from Gorelovo - roughly 1 h 14 in the saddle. On the way it passes The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin, The English Park and back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Volkhonskoe Highway and The English Park
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 60 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 14
- 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
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 14 km this is Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 14 km
- Named road
- Saint Petersburg Imperial Shore
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Volkhonskoe Highway
The Volkhonskoe Highway is not a scenic mountain road but a historic route on the southern edge of Saint Petersburg, running out from the city towards Gorelovo and the old road to Krasnoye Selo. It belongs to the network of eighteenth and nineteenth century highways that linked the capital with the imperial residences and military camps to the south and west, and it is included in the wider protected area of the historic centre of Saint Petersburg and its related monuments. What you see today is a mix of suburban growth, open fields and stretches of tree-lined road, with the ghosts of history underneath.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Volkhonskoe Highway is where the day begins. Next is The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin.
2. The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin
On the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, between St Petersburg and Peterhof, the old road runs past a string of palaces and estates that the Russian elite built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to be near the sea and the court. Among them, near Strelna, stands the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, a monastery founded in the eighteenth century as a dependency of the great Trinity Lavra of St Sergius near Moscow. It is part of the wide UNESCO listing of St Petersburg's historic centre and the monuments around it.
Read the complete The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is The English Park.
3. 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
about 29 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Park. Next is back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin.
4. back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin, late in the day. Next is Volkhonskoe Highway.
5. Volkhonskoe Highway
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Volkhonskoe Highway write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Volkhonskoe Highway. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Volkhonskoe Highway to The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin
Volkhonskoe Highway → The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin to The English Park
The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin → The English Park is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The English Park to back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin
The English Park → back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin to Volkhonskoe Highway
back through The Monastery Troitse-Sergieva Pustin → Volkhonskoe Highway is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.