Viking Longships are sailing European waters again, only this time, instead of creating havoc, they’re creating unforgettable vacation experiences for river cruisers aboard six new Viking River Cruises in 2012, four of which were christened last week in Amsterdam.

Thursday morning found us at the small volcanic islet called Bartolome, just off the east coast of Santiago Island.

This is the fourth in a series of articles on Rick Shively’s recent trip to the Galapagos with Lindblad Expeditions. Read his third entry in this series at recommend.com.

It’s our blustery March issue and if you’re looking out for fair winds in your 2012 sales projections, you won’t want to miss this month’s features on European river cruising and small ship cruising in the U.S.

With age, comes experience and there are very few tour operators today with the kind of experience SITA World Tours has acquired over the past 79 years, bringing literally thousands of travelers to exotic destinations around the globe.

Certainly, there’s no other travel product in the industry that has shown such explosive growth as river cruising, a product so popular it’s prompted river cruise companies to produce new builds virtually every year, all prompted by near sell-out numbers early in the year literally year after year. And leading that interest and spurring that growth are the historically and culturally rich rivers of Europe.

Monday morning found us anchored off of Floreana Island, one of the oldest islands in the Galapagos where ancient, extinct volcanoes eroded feeding minerals and nutrients into the soil making it rich in plant life, not to mention the wildlife.

Flanders is a region in Belgium historically famous for its lace and chocolate, but when you’re visiting this wonderfully whimsical region, you won’t be able to overlook the more boisterous beer products that have made it famous as well.

Sunday morning marked the beginning of the first full day of our Lindblad Expeditions Galapagos explorations.