Polarstern

Polarstern is the German icebreaker research vessel that the Alfred Wegener Institute uses to support on-going polar research in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. This was returned to me at the end of it's most recent Arctic expedition. Normally they apply a cachet to the envelope with the date and cruise number but not this time. It is a new postmark though. Rectangular instead of rounded.

According to the schedule, the vessel was suppose to be in Tromso on the date this was cancelled. That would have been then end of PS114. It will be back in Bremerhaven in October before heading south in November.

Kruševac, Serbia

Registered mail from the central Serbian city of Kruševac.

Polish Polar Station Hornsund

This recently came back to me from Svalbard. The Polish Academy of Science has been operating an Arctic research station on Spitsbergen island since 1957. The base is situated on the north side of the Hornsund fjord, about 136 km south of Longyearbyen.

This isn't the envelope I sent up there, but those are the stamps I used. The original cover must have been damaged somehow (wouldn't be the first time) so someone salvaged the postage and sent me this instead. No postmark and only the "41st Polar Expedition" stamp marked on the front but there were some extras inside, including a couple of pages with various hand-stamps on them.

Nieuwegein, Netherlands