So what if it is rainy like most of the days?

Now, lets begin with the fact that your best friend in this country (UK) is your umbrella. Get a small, portable one that you can take anywhere or put in any size of handbag.
I am serious, it is very important to have an umbrella with you constantly if you don't want to spend unbelievable amount of money on a cheap one. Yes, as you can assume already, it rains suddenly and catches people totally unprepared then naturally prices rise up to sky :)) okay I exaggerated here.

Anyway, Lets talk about what we can do in Oxford while it waters our garden; First of all, I would like to put the Ashmolean Museum on top of my list. Well, you might be a party animal who don't really enjoy art, sculptures, antics etc. Yet, even though you are not fancy with arts, you should visit the museum for the sake of next generation. :)
Well, the museum is the oldest museum in Europe (opened on 24 May 1683 as the world's first university art museum) . It was renovated exactly a year ago and reopened again in November 2010. It is absolutely done very beautifully.

It has different rooms for different empires or period of times. You can see tall and huge columns and damaged busts from the Roman Empire right at the front of the entrance as well as mummies and tombs from Ancient Egypt. There are beautiful sculptures and paintings of European artists of Renaissance period and Raphael and Da Vinci. And all of these is free of charge!

The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday (10am - 6pm) and on Bank Holiday Mondays (10am-6pm). There are particular dates that they will be closing at 5pm so for more details go to http://www.ashmolean.org/plan/openingtimes/
 They have quite good website that you can plan your visit before arriving. Here is the map;
 
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Well if you are really in to art and don't mind paying £3 for the entrance, there is another museum worth seeing. This museum is sort of a hidden place. Even most of the locals are not aware of it.


Christ Church Picture Gallery is located within the walls of Christ Church. To visit the Picture Gallery without visiting the rest of the college, enter through Canterbury Gate off Oriel Square (from King Edward Street), only a couple of minutes walk from the High Street. The Custodian at the gate will direct you to the Gallery. If you wish to see the entire college, entrance is at Meadow Gate. If you start from there, the Picture Gallery is located in the last quadrangle known as Canterbury Quad.

As you can understand from the name of the gallery, there are important paintings and drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Andrea del Verrocchio, Filippino Lippi, Annibale Carracci and Jacopo Robusti. 

The gallery is open everyday from May to October Mon-Sat 10.30am - 5pm Sundays 2pm-5pm
October to May Monday, Wednesday - Saturday: 10.30am - 1pm & 2 - 4.30pm
Sunday: 2 - 4.30pm                      
Visit http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/gallery/visiting for more details.
 
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