The first time I came it took eleven days by ship. The round trip was about three weeks, the average time I now spend in Europe in total when I visit each summer. Now I'm old, but not that old. That first trip was in 1958, an era that had a decidedly more relaxed pace. Going to Europe is no longer a major event.
Businesspeople do it as easily as crossing town.
But things other than travel time have changed just as dramatically. Back in the 1950s telephones and television sets were extremely uncommon here in Europe. Even a decade later, there were far fewer German households with these necessities than their Canadian counterparts. But what is interesting, is now that they are commonplace here, the technology has leapfrogged. Telephones are all digital, cable television is more sophisticated and more integrated into information management systems than we have at home.