St Albans (again)

Jack and I returned to St Albans today, but this time we took S with us. As we left the train station we gave directions to people (and they didn't get lost). We headed to the town centre and had a look at the markets. I thought this was a great idea knowing how much S loves
a) crowds
b) shopping
c) markets of any kind
d) all of the above
but he was very good and duly admired the fruit and veg (we believe the eggplants had been buffed judging by their beauteous sheen) and S even got a replacement band for his watch, which had been held together with a lacky band. It cost 50p and S was well chuffed till it broke 2 hours later.
We had a look at the food options but ended up eating pasties in the park. Amber (who was until today a co-resident of the manor) told us that the cathedral in St Albans was very impressive but although I had seen some nice looking churches hadn't thought they were 'impressive'. Then we walked down a couple of very quaint, little laneways and there it was. It is impressive. We didn't go inside (worried about thunderbolts etc) but admired its facade and heard some choral music that came drifting out into the park. From the cathedral we walked down to Verulamium Park, which is where a large roman city was situated quite a while ago. There are still some roman walls and bits and pieces and also a lovely park with a huge duck pond.Whenever I see a duck pond I always think of ill fated school excursions to the botanical gardens in Sydney where invariably some clueless child would fall into the duck pond and have to be fished out by a cranky teacher. I was always very careful not to fall in due to the large eels that also inhabited the pond.
So we strolled around the park, admiring the roman ruins, sidestepping the duck poo and enjoying the british sunshine (ie grey skies). S, to his delight, discovered a 9 hole golf course and we also discovered a water park for kids with lots of giant sprinklers on poles. There were lots of kids playing underneath them but Jack didn't get to because we didn't have any swimmers or a towel with us and really it wasn't that warm. We'll come back when it's warmer and we are armed with the proper accoutrements. Until then Big Space and the park will have to do.