I have been fortunate to live in Europe twice in my life, once in the late 70's then again in the 90's. In both cases, it was always very different from life in the U.S. in terms of language, culture, and especially business. I am happy to say that today the business climate is wonderfully supportive.
On a recent trip to I was struck by how open Europe has become to English. Whether I was in France, Germany, Italy or Spain, I remember being expected to make the effort to speak the language. Today people happily speak English, signs are multi-lingual and if you come to buy, sell work or learn you are welcome no matter where you hail from.
Sitting down to have dinner in a German Gausthaus tonight I got into a conversation with the party next to me. They were here from North America promoting their new energy drink to the health industry. This weekend I had dinner with an Attorney and Insurance broker. Both spoke sufficient English that I was spared from butchering their mother tongue and able to focus on the valuable tips the offered. 
An IT business owner gave me the inside scoop on networking hardware and infrastructure. I was only limited by my ability to absorb so much information.
Communicating back home has even gotten simpler. There is high speed internet most major areas and as long as you have a laptop, the biggest challenge is synchronizing time zones. walking around with my Blackberry, I never missed a single ping (TIP: I forwarded all my calls to voice mail which in turn forward to email, more economical than the $3/min for international roaming).
In summary if you want to do business in Europe here is all you need:
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Something to buy or sell
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Passport and laptop (PDA phone optional)
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Enough chutzpah to get out of your comfort zone and on a plane