It will probably be student break time anyway, in January.

Well if break time then I'd go on a weekend - Saturday Oxford turns into kind of a market town IME - shopping zone thronged with folks which to me at least lends a neat atmosphere.

Otherwise during the week if students are around and about it also gives a nice but different atmosphere.

supposed some colleges may be open more on weekends than during the weekday but major ones IME are usually accessible.

In any case check out the Ashmolen (sp?) Museum and its very eclectic array of displays gathered or plundered from far away lands at times thru the centuries. One of the most delightful museums this generally bored by museum blokes has ever seen!

http://www.ashmolean.org/

Thanks, Pal!

Term at the main university starts on January 13: at Brookes on Jan 21. Since most drinking and eating by undergraduates at the main university now takes place in college, and the city is a significant regional shopping and cultural centre, the atmosphere on the streets doesn't really differ much between term and vacation any more.

Admission times vary a bit between weekends and weekdays, but in no consistent way: they're slightly more generous in some colleges outside term time (colleges: http://www.ox.ac.uk/visitors_friends/visiting_the_university/visiting_the_colleges/index.html. Bodleian: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/visitors) Admission to Christ Church if you're not a member of the university or attending a service is very restricted on Sundays.

Personally, I find the city odd going on unpleasant on Sundays. Between 11 and 5, the shopping area is horribly full, most of the nicer shops in the Covered Market don't open on Sundays, you can't visit the Bodleian, most visitors can't get into Christ Church and the museums are at their most crowded (mostly, it looks, with divorced dads finding something to do with the kids on their access days). The noise of dinosaur-mad children in the University Museum (not the same place as the Ashmolean) on a Sunday aft is as raucous as a branch of a London Carluccio's on a Friday night. Though there's a quirky oddity contrasting the chain store horrors of Cornmarket with St Giles, just north, where between 1100 and 1200, congregations from a score of different flavours of Christianity spill out of Europe's most diverse range of competing churches.

The good thing about Saturdays, if you want to travel by train, is that offpeak returns work all day (I don't think you can really see that much if you wait for the first weekday train you can use offpeaks on, and peak time fares on this line are horrible). Theatres and music rooms have a slightly fuller range of offerings than on weekdays (there's little going on no theatre at all on Sundays). Plug your possible dates in to www.dailyinfo.co.uk to see what's on.

It's really up to you.

Yes!

Thank you, flanner. This is helpful. Saturday looks like our best bet.

i can't really help Stoke, as i don't know Oxford very well [and Flanner has got it covered anyway] but I'm just chiming in so I can follow your trip!

You are a gracious representative of your nation, annhig, and I wish we could meet over a cup of something steaming.

You are a gracious representative of your nation, annhig, and I wish we could meet over a cup of something steaming.>>

one day, stoke, I hope. sadly I don't live anywhere near Oxford; in fact it is quite inconsiderate of you not to venture closer to Cornwall on this trip. and does it have to be steaming? could in not be something chilled and sparkling?