Two days in FDR's Hudson Valley

Springwood, FDR's home in the Hudson Valley

"All that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

If you've seen or read about the new movie Hyde Park on Hudson, you'll know that in June 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth travelled to President Roosevelt's home in New York state to drum up his support for the impending war against Germany.

Being a US politics geek, I was keen to visit this historic home, so near to the city yet in a world of its own.We caught the Amtrak from Penn Station upstate to Poughkeepsie, the nearest station to FDR's beloved retreat in the Hudson Valley. Springwood was his childhood home, and his overbearing mother lived there with him even after his marriage. No wonder his wife Eleanor insisted on having her own cottage, Val-Kill, built two miles away.

As well as Springwood, which was modified to accommodate FDR's polio, the area is full of great stuff. There's the Culinary Institute of America,where we took a tour of the campus and ate dainty goat's cheese and Concord grape macarons in the student-run bakery. And the village of Hyde Park itself is a charming slice of throw-back Americana. There's a roller rink, a drive-in movie theatre, and a gleaming chrome diner. Here's some pictures...

Goat's cheese and Concord grape macaron

Eveready diner, Hyde Park

The CIA, training ground for America's top chefs

The Hudson 

Hyde Park roller rink and Eveready diner

Sunset view from Springwood

The Vanderbilt mansion, Hyde Park

Visit www.hudsonrivervalley.com for more information about the area.