Olana

A Persian fantasy set high upon the hill not far away from the town of Hudson was quite different to what we expected - this was the home of Frederick Church a landscape artist of the late 19th century who travelled to the Middle East and was highly influenced by Persian art and architecture.

He built his house on the top of a hill overlooking the Hudson, the views were really good, inside the house there was certainly a Persian influence and Suri loved it - being able to translate some of the writings on carpets and other documents. To me the paintings were a little dull but everybody to their own views.

After an early visit - we were the first to arrive we set off to the Catskill Mountains where we discovered the Delaware Rail track - unfortunately we had missed the last train of the day but we were able to clamber all over them.

Later on we popped in to a custom / classic car event - the cars were immaculate - great to look at but we were expecting more of a fair atmosphere - but it was highly focused on the cars - still a good day out.