Antwerp, Belgium

Kittens from Belgium. Making out the postmark was difficult but I'm pretty sure it says "Antwerpen X" which refers to the BPost sorting center in Antwerp.

Turrialba, Costa Rica

Turrialba is a city in the center of Costa Rica, in the canton on Turrialba in the province of Cartago. The canton is also the location of the Turrialba volcano which was last active in September of this year.

Beernem, Belgium

The stamps on this cover from Beernem are from a 2011 "This is Belgium" sheet entitled "Strength through Humor", with stamps illustrated and signed by famous Belgium cartoonists.

Ahmedabad, India

These stamps are the Indian issues from a joint issue between India and the UN. They were issued on 8 March 2016 to commemorate International Women's Day. "UN Women’s HeForShe is a solidarity movement for gender equality that aims to engage men and boys as agents of change for women’s rights and gender equality". More here.

Katowice, Poland

The Witcher is a hack and slash style video game series for the PC, developed by Polish video game publisher CD Project RED. The games are based on a series of novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The stamp on the miniture sheet features the game's protagonist Geralt of Rivia.

Neyagawa, Japan

Novi Sad, Serbia

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

Saint Nazaire, France

Stamp Day in France was held October 8-9 in 86 cities. One of the stamps issued for Stamp Day this year was the "Dance" theme stamp on the right, commemorating the Charleston. This cover came to me from Saint Nazaire: a city in Western France at the mouth of the Loire River. Merci François!

Concepción, Chile

A Chilean FDC from 2008 commemorating a telethon event, sent from Concepción, Chile. Apparently the 2008 telethon was on TV for 27 consecutive hours and raised $39 million USD for the diabled.

Bari, Italy

Slovenia, Rio 2016

Brazil Rio 2016 - Our Stamps

Another set of Olympic and Paralympic stamps from Brazil. They are from a sheet of 16 that feature designs by contest winners. The contestants were adults and children and I believe the theme was Olympic spirit.

Milan, Italy

TAAF, Crozet Islands

TAAF, Kerguelen

TAAF, Îles Saint-Paul et Amsterdam

Leusden, Netherlands

Bucharest, Romania

Algeria, Rio 2016

Dirigibile Italia Arctic Station - Ny-Ålesund, Norway

The Italian Arctic research station "Dirigibile Italia", inaugurated in 1997, was named after the ill-fated airship "Italia". The Italia crashed on 5 May 1928 while returning to Ny-Ålesund after an expedition that took it to the North Pole. Research at the station is focused on climate and the environment.

Dresden, Germany

New Zealand Post Admail

TAAF - Amateur Radio Expedition to Juan de Nova

This is a pre-paid envelope created for a ham radio DX expedition to Juan de Nova that took place between March 29 to April 11. They used this to mail QSL cards back to those who had contacted the expedition.

I don't know much about HAM radio, but I believe there is a branch of the hobby that involves trying to reach far away remote stations. It's known as DXing. After contact has been made, the HAM operator can request a confirmation card known as a QSL card, acknowledging that contact took place.

German Lighthouses 2016

This year the lighthouses are the Staberhuk Lighthouse located on Fehmarn Island and the Kampen Lighthouse on the island of Sylt.

Mozart in the Netherlands

Ocean Grove, Australia

Ocean Grove is a town on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victora, just a little south of Melbourne. It's a popular seaside tourist destination and it's population quadruples in the summer. Reminds me of a place I grew up in, without the seaside.

Charles Sturt was a famous British explorer of the Australian interior. Between 1828 and 1830 he mapped out the path of several rivers, hoping to prove the existence of an inland sea. And in 1844 he led an expedition into the interior of Australia.

MV Polarstern PS99

Sent back from Polarstern after supporting Arctic ocean research activities between Tromso and Longyearbyen. Detailed descriptions of the ships weekly activities can be found on the awi website.

Brazil, 400th anniversary of Belém

The Brazilian city of Belém, also known as Belém do Para, was founded in 1616 by the Portuguese. It was named after the historic Lisbon parish of Santa Maria de Belém. Belém is Portuguese for Bethlehem. The city is considered the gateway to the Amazon river: the Metropolis of the Brazilian Amazon region.

UK, The Great War FDC

Cancelled on the 97th anniversary of the scuttling of the German fleet in the village of Lynnes on the Orkney island of Hoy. The German fleet was scuttled in Scarpa Flow: the body of water to the north-east of Lynnes. The stamp sheet commemorates the activities of the Post office during the First World War.

Dublin, Ireland

I just realized that the stamp on the left is actually an ATM label. It's got an image of Irish revolutionary Roger Casement on it. He was executed by the British in 1916 for treason.

Strasbourg, France

The image in the postmark is the Strasbourg Cathedral. It's suppose to be one of the best examples of late Gothic architecture.

Tasilaq, Greenland

Post Greenland's head office and philatelic bureau is located in Tasilaq. It is not the capital of Greenland. In fact, it is only the 7th most populated town in Greenland. It sits on the eastern coast of Greenland which is less populated than the west.

This is marked with "Porto kontrolleret" to the right of the Tasilaq postmark: "postage controlled". I believe this means the sender didn't put enough postage on the envelope. Perhaps the nice 2 DKK stamps was added by the post office.

Thanks for the cover Martin.

Břeclav, Czech Rebpublic

Rio 2016: Olympic and Paralympic Sports

More sports of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio. The sports on these stamps are Equestrian, Field Hockey and Paralympic swimming. These are from a sheet of 25 with 11 different designs. I believe this is the third sheet from Brazil featuring Olympic and Paralympic games.

Bodø. Norway

The Norwegian city of Bodø celebrated it's 200th anniversary in May of 2016. Bodo is the capital of Nordland county and sits just above the Arctic circle on a peninsula in the Norwegian sea.

Vulcan, Alberta

An updated postmark for Vulcan, Alberta. Canada Post issued a set of Star Trek stamps last month to commemorate the shows 50th anniversary. Leonard Nimoy visited the town of Vulcan in 2010.

Bari, Italy

Manila, Philippines

Curitiba, Brazil

Helsinki, Finland

The stamps are from a sheet titled Eläinten kaupunki (animal town) : an imaginary place where people and animals live happily together.

Interesting way to reuse a stamp

I had a small pile of stamps on paper to soak and in the pile was this pair of stamps from the Netherlands. It was strange that the 20c stamps was placed over the corner of the 88c stamp. They were aligned on the envelope just as they are in the scan below, with a nice Amsterdam postmark over both stamps.

After removing the stamps from the paper I discovered why the 20c stamps had been placed over the other. It was covering a previous cancellation from 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch). The 88c stamp had been previously used and franked on a different envelope. I've never seen a so obviously cancelled stamp reused on a letter before.

Jurong East, Singapore

The large stamp on this one shows the Singapore Botanical Gardens. The 156 year old tropical garden is the only tropical garden listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.

Shirley Temple Day of Issue, USA