Inn On The Park in St. Albans Verulamium Park

Serving a variety of lunch food, ice cream and drinks, the Inn on The Park in Verulamium Park is a welcome find for thirsty and hungry park goers. To find it, walk past the smaller of the two lakes in the park, then head up the hill past the splash pool or, from the other direction, walk towards St. Michaels from the playground, past the tennis courts, and you’ll see it.

According the the Council website, “This theme will be echoed in performances, street events and museum activities. Enjoy two eminent speakers, the Rt. Hon. Lord Bingham and the TV historian Dan Snow. The Mayor of St Albans will lead a prestigious celebratory procession in honour of Magna Carta.”

You can find out more about the festival, which will run between 11-27 June 2010 at http://www.stalbansfestival.com/

You don’t have to be able to create beautiful pancakes like these made by my mum – all you have to do is put together a four person team to run, whilst flipping a pancake in a pan. There is still time to register your team for the event. Details here…

Residents’ First Weekend gives people the opportunity to try out many of their local attractions free of the usual entry charge, or with a special offer, or to gain entry to places which are not normally open to the public. According to figures released by the Council, on average five / six thousand people participate in this two-day event, with leisure centres, the cathedral and the museums amongst the favourite venues.

To take advantage of some of the more popular special offers available you’ll need to obtain a voucher, available at the Tourist Information Centre, located at the back of the old Town Hall. I’ve posted further information on the special offers available during St. Albans Residents First Weekend over on St. Albans People.

The site explains:

"Our aim at ToddlersDayOut is to provide a web guide full of local information, classes and preschool activities
for children under five in St Albans, Harpenden and surrounding
Hertfordshire areas. So whether you're a parent, expectant parent (we
have antenatal and postnatal classes listed), or carer of a baby, toddler or preschooler this site's for you."

One can often see remote controlled boat on this of the two lakes at Verulamium park in St. Albans…

During the bank holiday weekend we took some friends, a family with boys aged 4 and 7, for their first visit to Watercress.

The wildlife area, managed by volunteers, is an oasis of nature only a few minutes walk from St. Albans city centre.

Now is a great time to visit as there are plenty of wild blackberries and the apples – there used to be an orchard on part of the site and the volunteers have brought the long ago forgotten apple, pear and plum trees back to health with most of them laden in fruit -  are nearly ripe.

We’ve written comprehensively about Watercress here before but our visit yesterday reminded us of just how wonderful it is to have such a beautiful and accessible piece of nature so close to the centre of St. Albans.

You’ll find Watercress behind Riverside Road, near the intersection with Cornwall Road.