Utrecht 3

On 10 June 2017 I visited the city of Utrecht for the Day of the Coin, the annual open day of the Royal Dutch Mint. Of course I went to the post office to get a datestamp. The post office closest to the station was the one in the AKO book store in Hoog Catharijne shopping mall that is built next to the station. For this envelope I used the Utrecht stamp from the 2017 sheet with Dutch botanical gardens. Utrecht Botanic Gardens are part of the university and can be visited (uu.nl/en/utrecht-botanic-gardens). The stamp shows the Pyrostegia venusta (flamevine or orange trumpetvine). With the postmark Utrecht it makes a perfect match.

Utrecht is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation and is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands. Utrecht's ancient city centre features many buildings and structures several dating as far back as the High Middle Ages. It has been the religious centre of the Netherlands since the 8th century. It lost the status of prince-bishopric but remains the main religious centre in the country. Utrecht was the most important city in the Netherlands until the Dutch Golden Age, when it was surpassed by Amsterdam as the country's cultural centre and most populous city.

Utrecht is host to Utrecht University, the largest university in the Netherlands, as well as several other institutions of higher education. Due to its central position within the country, it is an important transport hub for both rail and road transport. It has the second highest number of cultural events in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam. In 2012, Lonely Planet included Utrecht in the top 10 of the world’s unsung places.

City/town:       Utrecht

Municipality:   Utrecht

Area:              99,21 km²

Population:    345.080 (August 2017)

Website:        utrecht.nl

Post office

AKO Utrecht Hoog Catharijne

Godebaldkwartier 79 1

3511 DN  UTRECHT

ako.nl/ako-utrecht-hoog-catharijne

Date sent: 10 June 2017

Date postmark: 10 June 2017

Date received: 13 June 2017

Number of days: 3

Envelope in collection: 170