Continental Europe
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Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent,<ref name="ae00">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="euroterre">Template:Cite book</ref> – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by some, simply as the Continent.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> When Eurasia is regarded as a single continent, Europe is treated both as a continent and subcontinent.<ref name="Baldwin">Template:Citation</ref>
Conceptual history
The continental territory of the historical Carolingian Empire was one of the many old cultural concepts used for mainland Europe.<ref name="Heacock 2013">Template:Cite web</ref> This was consciously invoked in the 1950s as one of the basis for the prospective European integration (see also multi-speed Europe)<ref name="Kaiser 2003 p. 67–69">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Hyde-Price 2000 p. 128">Template:Cite book</ref>
The most common definition of mainland Europe excludes these continental islands: the Greek islands, Cyprus<ref>Geographically, Cyprus belongs to Southwest Asia (more specifically, the Near East), but politically and culturally it is considered part of Europe.</ref>, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Great Britain and Ireland and surrounding islands, Novaya Zemlya and the Nordic archipelago, as well as nearby oceanic islands, including the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Svalbard.<ref name="Misachi 2019">Template:Cite web</ref>
The Scandinavian Peninsula is sometimes also excluded even though it is a part of "mainland Europe", as the de facto connections to the rest of the continent were historically across the Baltic Sea or North Sea (rather than via the lengthy land route that involves travelling to the north of the peninsula where it meets Finland, and then south through northeast Europe).<ref name="Misachi 2019"/>
Great Britain and Ireland
Great Britain, off the western coast of the continental landmass, is the largest island of Europe by both area and population. It is geographically close, with the Strait of Dover being Template:Convert at its narrowest.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In both Great Britain and Ireland (which together consisted of the states of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland), the Continent is generally used to refer to the mainland of Europe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> An amusing British newspaper headline supposedly once read, "Fog in Channel; Continent Cut Off".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It has also been claimed that this was a regular weather forecast in Britain in the 1930s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In addition, the sole word Europe itself is also regularly used to mean anywhere on continental Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Derivatively, the adjective continental refers to the social practices or fashion of continental Europe, or at least specific parts of it. Examples include breakfast, topless sunbathing and, historically, long-range driving (before Britain had motorways) often known as Grand Touring.Template:Citation needed Remaining differences as seen in electrical plugs, the use of left-hand traffic, and for the United Kingdom, the continued use of certain imperial units alongside the metric units (which have long since displaced customary units in continental Europe) have reinforced the idea.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1994, Britain became physically connected to continental Europe for the first time (since becoming an island 8000 years ago) through the opening of the undersea Channel Tunnel. The tunnel accommodates passenger traffic between the island and northern France while maintaining border controls on each side.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Scandinavia
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The Scandinavian Peninsula is attached to continental Europe, however the land route runs along the 66th parallel north, in the north of the peninsula. The de facto connections to the rest of the continent were historically across the Baltic Sea or North Sea, thus making Scandinavia functionally an "island" and is why the region is often excluded from continental Europe,<ref name="Misachi 2019" /> including by the European Union which make a distinction between Scandinavia and Mainland Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In traditional Germanic studies, continental refers to the European continent excluding the Scandinavian Peninsula (as well as Britain, Ireland, and Iceland). In Denmark (not on the peninsula), Jutland is referred to as the national mainland and thereby a part of continental Europe.
People in Scandinavia have viewed the region as distinct and a separate entity to continental Europe, similar as in Britain. The term Template:Lang in Swedish or Template:Lang in Norwegian ("the Continent") is a vernacular expression that refers to continental Europe but with the exclusion of Sweden, Norway, and Finland (although Denmark is included, despite the Danish Archipelago technically not a part of continental Europe). Another Swedish expression is Template:Lang, meaning "down on the continent".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some other differences in social culture and climate have further reinforced this idea of it being separate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The opening of the Great Belt Bridge and Øresund Bridge, in 1998 and 2000, have for the first time provided a direct physical connection from the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Danish mainland (the Jutland Peninsula), and thus the European mainland. This also included the other Danish islands (Zealand and Funen), as was noted in the New York Times headline: "Copenhagen is linked to the Continent".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Mediterranean and Atlantic islands
The term The Continent may also be used from the perspective of the island residents of each country to describe the continental portion of their country or the continent (or mainland) as a whole. So for example, "continent" may be used to refer to the continental part of France (excluding Corsica and overseas France), the continental part of Greece (excluding the Aegean Islands, Crete, and the Ionian Islands), the continental part of Italy (excluding Sardinia, Sicily, etc.), the continental part of Portugal (excluding the Azores and Madeira), or the continental part of Spain (excluding the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, the plazas de soberanía, etc.).
The part of continental France located in Europe is also known as l'Hexagone, "the Hexagon", referring to its approximate shape on a map. Continental Italy is also known as lo Stivale, "the Boot", referring to its approximate shape on a map. Continental Spain is referred to as peninsular Spain.