|
|
The Hudson River Valley with its Gracious Homes and Magnificent Art October 15 – 19, 2010 |
| A very special, very interesting tour arranged for The Volunteers' Circle of The National Gallery of Canada |
 |
|||
Your Executive Worldwide Travel Tour Itinerary | |||||
 |
|||||
|
The natural beauty of the Hudson Valley earned the Hudson River, an American Heritage River,
the nickname "America's Rhine,"comparing it to the famous 40-mile stretch of Germany's
Rhine River valley between the cities of Bingen and Koblenz. A similar 30-mile stretch on the east bank of the Hudson has been designated the Hudson River Historic District. Extending inland roughly a mile from the east bank of the Hudson River between Staatsburg and Germantown in Dutchess and Columbia counties, this area includes the riverfront sections of the towns of Clermont, Red Hook, Rhinebeck and part of Hyde Park. We’ll explore this “Great Estates Region,” with its magnificent Gilded Age mansions and fabulous art collections, from our base at the historic Beekman Arms, so long a significant part of the fabric of the area. Please join us. We’ll have a great time! |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
Friday, October 15 Early morning departure from the National Gallery. Stop en route in the Saratoga Springs area to stretch our legs, relax and enjoy our box lunch at leisure in the picnic area of Schroon Lake. Continue on to Rhinebeck, New York, arriving in the late afternoon. Check into The Beekman Arms, the oldest landmark inn in America. It has served as a fort, a stagecoach stop, Rhinebeck's Town Hall, its post office, and even the local newspaper office. The inn was a haven for revolutionaries, hosting George Washington, Benedict Arnold and Alexander Hamilton. The 4th Regiment of the Continental Army drilled on the lawn and the townspeople took refuge here when the British burned the state capital at Kingston, just across the river. It was inside the inn that rivals Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton exchanged insults that led to their infamous duel and Hamilton’s death. During Franklin D. Roosevelt's many presidential campaigns, he made some of his liveliest speeches from the inn's front porch. Other famous guests include Martin van Buren and Theodore Roosevelt. Welcome dinner at the hotel. LD |
   
|
||
| |||
     |
Saturday, October 16 Continental breakfast at the hotel. Morning transfer to Bard College for tours at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and the Hessel Museum of Art. Designed by internationally acclaimed architect Frank Gehry, the 110,000-square-foot Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College opened in April 2003. The Fisher Center houses two theaters, rehearsal studios for dance and theater, and professional support facilities. Tour of the Sosnoff Theater, an intimate 900-seat theater with an orchestra, parterre, and two balcony sections, which features an orchestra pit for opera and an acoustic shell designed by Yasuhisa Toyota that turns the theater into a first-class concert hall for performances of chamber and symphonic music. Continue on to the Center for Curatorial Studies for a guided tour at the Hessel Museum of Art, a 17,000 square-foot building dedicated to the Marieluise Hessel Collection of over 1,700 contemporary works. The Collection, on permanent loan at the Museum, includes works by Carl Andre, Janine Antoni, Louise Bourgeois, Anne Chu, Francesco Clemente, Dan Flavin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Thomas Hirschhorn, Isaac Julien, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Mapplethorpe, Paul McCarthy, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Pipilotti Rist, Doris Salcedo, David Salle, Rosemarie Trockel, Kara Walker, and Christopher Wool, among many others. Lunch on your own before departing for Springwood, the birthplace, life-long home, and burial place of the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Guided tours of the Presidential Library and house. Return to our hotel with time to freshen up before dinner at Shadows on the Hudson, a waterfront restaurant located in Poughkeepsie, NY. Perched on a cliff forty feet above the Hudson River and just fifty feet from its eastern bank, its location offers one-of-a-kind views of the Mid-Hudson bridge to the north and miles of open river to the south. Overnight at Beekman Arms. BD |
|||
| ||||
|
Sunday, October 17 After breakfast, depart for Germantown and a guided tour at Clermont, the Hudson River seat of the politically and socially prominent Livingston family of New York for more than 230 years. Lunch at the Rhinecliff Hotel before transferring to Dia:Beacon, the largest museum of contemporary art in the U.S. Its installations, by modern giants like Andy Warhol, Richard Serra, Donald Judd and Dan Flavin, sprawl across vast galleries, which total more than a quarter of a million square feet. Guided tour at Dia. Transfer to Wing’s Castle, a unique architectural site. This Hudson River stone castle was built by artists Peter and Toni Wing using salvaged materials from antique buildings. The castle with 7 towers and moat has taken more than 23 years to build and it is still not finished. Following our guided tour at the Castle, transfer to the nearby Millbrook Vineyards and Winery for a guided tour and tasting. Dinner on your own in Millbrook. Overnight Beekman Arms. BL |
   |
|||
| ||||
|
Monday, October 18 After breakfast at the hotel, depart for Hudson and a guided tour at Olana, conceived and created by Frederic Edwin Church, which offers spectacular vistas and carefully manicured grounds. This estate is a three-dimensional extension of the ideas expressed on Church's canvasses. The 37-room mansion was built between 1870 and 1874 and stands on a hill 500 feet above the Hudson River Valley, commanding a spectacular view of the river and the Catskill Mountains. Many of Church's paintings remain in the house. Lunch on your own in Hudson. Transfer to Walkway Over the Hudson, the world's tallest pedestrian bridge, a 120-year-old railroad bridge re-engineered 212 feet above the Hudson River. Weather permitting, we’ll experience the thrill of walking on this marvel of Industrial Revolution engineering. Depart for Staatsburg, (formerly known as Mills Mansion), and a guided tour of this elegant example of the great estates built by America's financial and industrial leaders during the Gilded Age. Located on property acquired in 1792 by New York's third governor, Morgan Lewis, and his wife, Gertrude Livingston, this mansion was the country estate of Ruth Livingston Mills and her husband, financier and philanthropist Ogden Mills. The opulently furnished mansion enjoys panoramic vistas of the Hudson River. At completion of its restoration in 1896, the house was transformed into a Beaux-Arts mansion of sixty-five rooms and fourteen bathrooms. Its exterior was embellished with balustrades, pilasters, floral swags and a massive portico. The rooms were furnished with elaborately carved and gilded furniture, fine oriental rugs, silk fabrics and a collection of art objects from Europe, ancient Greece and the Far East. Return to hotel with time to freshen up before our Farewell Dinner in a magnificent Tuscan Villa setting at The Culinary Institute of America, the world's premier culinary college. A 2004 recipient of the prestigious Ivy Award, Ristorante Caterina de' Medici is located in the beautiful Colavita Center for Italian Food and Wine. Its à la carte menu features seasonal ingredients and authentic flavor combinations of this much-beloved cuisine, as well as a diverse selection of Italian wines, beers, and apéritifs. Return to the Beekman Arms following dinner. BD |
     |
|||
|
| ||||
    |
Tuesday, October 19 Breakfast at the hotel. Check out and depart for Saratoga Springs where you will have lunch on your own. After lunch, depart for Glens Falls and a guided tour of the Hyde Collection. The Museum offers a world-class collection of objects that span the history of western art from the fourth century BC through the twentieth century. The Museum's founders, Louis and Charlotte Hyde, acquired the majority of objects during a fifty-year period of avid and highly informed collecting. Many of these works are displayed in their home, known as Hyde House, as well as select galleries in the education wing. The permanent collection consists of approximately 2,800 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, furniture, and decorative arts, including works by Botticelli, El Greco, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Rubens. After the death of her husband in 1934, Mrs. Hyde continued to acquire new works by such modern masters as Cézanne, Degas, Picasso, Renoir, Seurat, and van Gogh. Concurrently, she assembled a significant group of works by important American artists including Eakins, Hassam, Homer, Peto, and Ryder. Following the tour, depart for Ottawa with a stop en route for supper on your own. Approximate arrival time in Ottawa is 8:00 p.m. B |
||
| |||
|
Travel Agency: Executive Worldwide Travel Agent: Jean Sheikh, C.T.C. (613) 236-5555 Or 1-800-267-5552 Registration No.: 1892605 Coordinators: Anne Duncker Sheila Klein |
For more details on this tour or to request a brochure, | ||||
Back to Tours |