Central European Summer Time (CEST)

Comments (Archived):

1. Congrats and enjoy.Take advantage of bike share everywhere.

   1. Here in Berlin, there were a couple bike share co’s last year, and now there must be 20. One, nextbike, is free for now.Maybe the bike co’s will start issuing tokens next!

      1. ha!first one i ever used back when was in Paris, Velib and pretty well use them everywhere, even in LA a few weeks back.coolest thing i noticed last time in Barcelona was that there were rebates if you docked bikes on racks on the top of the hill up towards the Ghaudi park as it is a schlepp biking up which was clever.

         1. In Berlin, there are 2 scooter sharing co’s that I use way more, plus DriveNow which is a total life-changer.Paris is much less privileged in this particular area.

            1. gotta think whether i would do scooters in paris. metro is so good that with that and bikes and walking i’m pretty covered.

            2. easy to say about Berlin too– until you’ve actually lived over here and tried this sort of thing.Coup is in Paris now. I know the company quite well:https://cleantechnica.com/2…

            3. In Milan and Lisbon in a bit most likely and I’ll reconsiderThanks for the nudge.

            4. Love Milan. Love the lakes region above Milan too!

            5. Bernina Express (San Moritz to Milan) through Lugano = magical. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

            6. yup, took that train from the lakes to Switzerland. Scenery amazing.

            7. If I go it will be work in Milan, work and explore in Lisbon then prob a few days in the Duoro.Need to decide this week.

   2. i am getting a month pass for Velib!

      1. also be sure to check out cityscoot,and Coup (when they arrive soon).

      2. Bike sharing in Paris is nice, but unfortunately their bicycles are a bit on the heavy side. Be sure to check newly pedestrianized parts of Seine bank. A big reason to like current socialist mayor.

      3. Velib quality isn’t as high as in London or NY – check your brakes, spokes, and chain before taking off! Also, curious about your thoughts on French tech scene. Station F will open shortly with backing from Facebook, Zen Desk and a French telecom magnate.

2. Planning to spend any time in Lisbon? The Lisbon Investment Summit is just around the corner…

3. Enjoy Fred! Well earned. Enjoy the beauty of Europe. Soak up the culture. Rejuvenate the mind.

4. Wonderful I remember Paris at 3am throwing fairy dust in the air with all the passion of youth. Love Paris maggots & all : ) Les Enfants Terribles

5. Paris hasn’t seen you for a while 😉

6. Joyeux Anniversaire ! I wish you both 30 more years of joy. Chapeau !!

7. Congratulations Fred. My wife and I are coming upon our 24th this July. Thirty years is an amazing accomplishment. And I use that word intentionally. Just like a successful startup, a successful marriage can be hard work. Although my wife has made it clear she does not appreciate the use of Lean Startup principles in certain aspects of our marriage.

   1. “Accomplishment” is a good word for a 30 year marriage! So is “amazing”!Congratulations!

8. Congratulations and enjoy

9. Hearty congratulations. Have fun.

10. Take care. Europe is not safe anymore. You´d better come to South America.

    1. Nice joke. It’s not safe how exactly?

       1. I meant specially France, England and Germany. There is a lot of good places in South America. Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Northern beachs of Brazil, but not Rio de Janeiro. And it will be much less expensive than Western Europe. In Europe, I would only consider Italy (the wineries), Eastern Europe countries, Russia and Estonia, of course.

          1. While the terrorist attacks are a horrible thing, saying that it’s not safe in UK, France or Germany is a complete disregard of basic facts. There is at least an order of magnitude higher chance to die in a traffic accident in those countries than to die from a terrorist attack.

    2. Not sure if you noticed, but there isn’t much of a market for fear at AVC.

       1. All right. Let it be written, let it be done.

          1. Can’t resist https://youtu.be/z7TnY94x_mI

             1. Great remembrance! One of my 10 movies of all time. But the phrase I quoted was utttered by Ramesses II (in fact by Yul Brynner).

             2. Nice one 🙂

             3. Ah, so you like that movie! I saw it then got the book, by A. Nutting, and read it.I have a script (recently got it from the Internet; sorry, didn’t keep the URL, but likely found it via just a routine Google search), and there can see that the movie has remarkably few words of dialog. So, really the movie is heavily visual, i.e., David Lean style.I liked the movie because of the way Lawrence, treated as a fool at British HQ in Cairo, made the generals look foolish:How can I fight a bloody war without bloody artillery?Well, General, the strange, thin, weak little guy you just threw out of your office with high contempt is about to show you!I explained Lawrence as a hold over from 19th century overly optimistic and debilitatingly irrational romanticism.The movie made it seem that T. E. L. did the near impossible starting with next to nothing: Well, not really. He’d written his senior thesis on castles in the Mideast and traveled there collecting data. E.g., that he needed to be shown how to ride a camel is likely not true!The view from the southern part of the Ottoman Empire was interesting, if close to true. And the Ottoman’s were fighting off and on in the Balkans with the Holy Roman Empire in Vienna. There’s a curious, recent view of the Balkans inhttps://www.youtube.com/wat…For the Arabs, on the one hand, actually surviving in that desert was a grand accomplishment just in itself. On the other hand, by the end of the movie, I’d lost a lot of patience with the Arabs. I can’t know if Lean’s view of the Arabs in 1917 or so is accurate, but if so I have to suspect that they’ve changed relatively little since then which means that again I would lose patience with the Arabs.Between the video about the Balkans and LoA about Arabia, the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Europe roughly north of the Alps, east of the Pyrenees, and west of the Urals looks astoundingly different. But for the lucky gene and geography lottery, I could have been stuck in the deserts of Arabia or the very poor lands (lots of interesting birds!) in the Balkans. I wouldn’t have made it since I had two childhood illnesses, either of which without good medical care, would have killed me.There’s another telling video, on Wolverines, athttps://www.youtube.com/wat…The video is heavily about the 1 million square mile Glacier National Park: That place is beautiful but bleak! Next to nothing can live there, and next to nothing does. Wolverines can make it, e.g., eating frozen bones from animals killed by the winter, but there are only about 45 Wolverines in the whole million square miles. The place is BLEAK! So is Arabia and much of the Balkans! So, there are three places to be astounded at how much better the successful areas of the US, Canada, Europe, etc. are.Fred and GG are eager to rush off to Europe: I know, with, say, https://www.youtube.com/wat…andhttps://www.youtube.com/wat…Vienna can look terrific!But with the many Medieval monsters the EU insisted on the member states admitting, I’m losing patience with Europe.Maybe just stay in the US! We’ve got lots of culture we imported from Europe along with lots of scenery! Ah, just travel up the East Coast to, say, Maine, and feast on seafood with a little Chardonnay, the second from near Macon!Ah, what’s Europe got that the US doesn’t?

11. Congratulations to you both – it really is a great accomplishment.

12. Congratulations Fred! Here’s to thirty more years 🙂

13. Congratulations! Enjoy your time together.

14. C(‘)EST la vie time. congratz.

15. Yes

16. This is so great.. Enjoy your stay.

17. Congratulations! It’s Dr. Jules and my 30th this year as well. Bringing over our New Zealand exchange student and her son as our present to ourselves. 17 years ago Jessica was our Rotary exchange student, and that experience opened up the world to us.And, we might sneak a trip to Saint-Émilion at some point as well!

    1. congrats

18. Congratulations.

19. Mazel Tov!

20. Congrats. Just did our 30th in St. Barth’s. http://pointsandfigures.com… Have fun and Bon Voyage. Would love to hire you as a “cheese mule” to bring back great cheese the USDA won’t allow…..grrrr!

21. . Applause for a successful startup.Evidence of strong leadership and great execution. Bootstrapped.Well played.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    1. I guess it’s not a startup anymore 😉

22. Congratulations. Welcome to Europe, have fun 🙂

23. Congrats you two!

24. Role models for marriage. CONGRATS!Oh I have to get a move on and meet “The One”!

25. congrats and enjoy! looking forward to the random assortment of posts.

26. Happy anniversary, Fred and Joanne.

27. Happy Anniversary!https://youtu.be/knp9-GY6fHE

    1. You have very good choices. I remember Barney singing Fred the song, until Fred gets upset. Unforgettable TV show.

28. Congrats.Have fun.

29. Congrats!Hope you’ll seize the opportunity to visit Switzerland!Welcome again in Europe Fred!

30. Congrats Fred.Nice photo btw., what camera?

31. Ah, Trump just returned from Europe, and Fred just went there! So, here’s a good story for the NYT, since they like made-up, cooked-up, stirred-up, gang-up, pile-on fake news so much: Fred and The Donald are avoiding each other!!!!!!

32. Congrats Fred. I had breakfast at the same cafe on my honeymoon a few years ago. Enjoy as I remember the outlook onto that cobblestone square as being magical and reminds me why I love to travel.

33. Happy anniversary and bon voyage.Smells like fresh croissants and good coffee.

34. Congrats! Hope you will enjoy Paris. If you are looking for great places for lunches/ dinners, here are a few recommandations that are not the usual tourist places (you need to book in most places):- Abri (92 rue du Faubourg Poissonnière – 75010 Paris – +33 1 83 97 00 00)- Table (3, rue de Prague – 75012 Paris – +33 1 43 43 12 26)- Yam Tcha (121 Rue Saint Honoré, 75001 Paris – +33 1 40 26 08 07)- Septime (80 Rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris – +33 1 43 67 38 29)- Frenchie (5 Rue du Nil, 75002 Paris – +33 1 40 39 96 19)Let me know if you need other advices (bars, patisseries, other restaurants…)!

35. Congrats and enjoy Paris!

36. bon anniversaire 🙂

37. Congratulations and a happy anniversary!

38. Congratulations! That’s a good track record.

39. Happy Anniversary!

40. Congratulations! I am one of many who have learned so much from both of you sharing your work here, there, and everywhere.

41. Have a fabulous time celebrating 30 years of true love and life together!I hear there some good wine over there, enjoy to the max!

42. Congratulations!A lot of good has come out of those “I do’s”!Enjoy Europe and thank you for taking us with you! Will enjoy the posts.

43. That is one of my favorite cafes in the world. Knew it instantly, even before I click-enlarged the photo. Hemingway et al used to hang out there. Enjoy.

44. congrats to you and gotham gal!

45. congrats! here’s to thirty more!

46. Happy Anniversary! 🙂

47. Fantastic accomplishment: Congratulations Fred and the Gotham Gal. Here’s hoping you will both be enjoying a wonderful,healthy and safe, time throughout your trip.