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Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent (particularly by Britons, Azores and Madeira Portuguese, Balearic and Canary Spaniards, Icelanders and other European island nations, and peninsular Scandinavians), is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding the islands of Europe. The most common definition of continental Europe excludes the Greek Islands, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Iceland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom and its dependencies. Most definitions extend the boundaries of the continent to its standard boundaries: the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus Mountains. ==Use in the United Kingdom== In the United Kingdom, ''the Continent'' is widely and generally used to refer to the mainland of Europe. In addition, the word ''Europe'' itself is also regularly used to mean Europe excluding the islands of Great Britain, Iceland, and Ireland (although the term is often used to refer to the European Union). Occasionally the term ''mainland Europe'' is used. An apocryphal British newspaper headline supposedly once read, "Fog in Channel; Continent Cut Off". It has also been claimed that this was a regular weather forecast in Britain in the 1930s.〔(Fog in Channel? (book) )〕 Derivatively, the adjective ''continental'' refers to the social practices or fashion of continental Europe as opposed to those of Britain. Examples include breakfast, topless sunbathing and, historically, long-range driving (before Britain had motorways) often known as ''Grand Touring''. Continental Europe, when compared to Britain, has numerous defined differences both cultural and tangible. The use of civil law rather than common law, different electrical plugs, different time zones for the most part, a different currency, driving on the right, and using the metric system exclusively are a small selection. The United Kingdom is physically connected to continental Europe through the undersea Channel Tunnel (the longest undersea tunnel in the world), which accommodates both the Eurotunnel (passenger and vehicle use - vehicle required) and Eurostar (passenger use only) services. These services were established to transport passengers and vehicles through the tunnel on a 24/7 basis from the United Kingdom to continental Europe and vice versa, while still maintaining the appropriate passport and immigration control measures on both sides of the tunnel. In recent times however, British and French authorities have had considerable trouble concerning illegal immigration into the United Kingdom on account of migrants mainly from Sudan, Syria, Libya and Eritrea among others.〔http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33709244〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Continental Europe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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