Roundabouts and dead animals
That's what we've seen the most of this weekend. On Thursday, we went off to Cambridge for Tollef to do some work and me to do some touristing, and also to drop by IKEA in Milton Keynes for some houseware-shopping.
Out of Oxford towards Milton Keynes, there was never less than a mile between the roundabouts! Mostly it was about half a mile with national speed limit (which is 60 mph or about 90 kmph) between the roundabouts, and then on again. We were already amused by the mini-roundabouts in the city centre and local areas, which mostly consists of white circles in the middle of junctions to make the traffic float better. It works, but it looks pretty funny to us Norwegians.
We decided to go for IKEA on Thursday, to be a bit more flexible about our return on Sunday. We got almost everything we needed, including a couple of foldable chairs, a coffee table, a cover mattress and some kitchenware.
The last bit to Cambridge had several parts with up to 5-6 miles between the roundabouts. We arrived the Collabora offices in the city centre of Cambridge just in time to have some rest before going out with Tollef's colleague Sumanah and her husband. We went to a very nice restaurant and had a nice evening, before heading off to Steve who had been so kind to lend us his sofabed for the weekend.
On Friday, I didn't feel to well, so I had a pretty lazy day with relaxing in the park before going to curry dinner with the Collabradors (...?).
Saturday I had decided for us to go to the horseraces on Newmarket, which is just a short way from Cambridge. Tollef came with me, maybe not too enthusiastic. The weather was lovely, actually it has mostly been sunny every day since we moved here! We saw a lot of pretty horses, I won a pound and lost a handful. Just for fun, of course. It was nice, but not something I would do a lot even if I lived in England permanently.
From Newmarket we decided to take a detour back via Ely, which has a wonderful large cathedral. It was really stunning, and I do actually believe it is the most beautiful cathedral I ever saw.
On the road Saturday, we noticed a pretty fair amount of dead animals along the road. Especially on the local roads, but also along the motorways there were dead rabbits, pheasants, badgers and other birds and small animals. At some point it was less than 20 meters between each, and I felt really bad about them. In Norway, warning signs and speed limits would be in place pretty quick in those circumstances.
On Sunday we met up with Colin and his family for lunch on Carlton Arms, before heading home. Colin's 9 month old daughter Judith was adorable and pretty much stole the attention. We had also planned to visit Trinity college on our way home, but unfortunately it was closed. Well, we will probably visit Cambridge again during our stay in England.
Oh, btw. I joined Skype. A lot cheaper to call Norway, especially when my parents get it as well.