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Spain: Mainland Spain
built 614 days ago
In mainland Spain itself, love is pervading in the air during Valentines Day as the main thoroughfares of such cities as Barcelona, Salamanca and Valencia are lined up with vendors selling lots of varieties of flowers. So if you want to be treated with fancy flowers in lieu of the more expensive but impractical flower designs at signature flower shops, then this is the place to buy flowers on Valentines Day here in Spain.
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Spain shares the Iberian peninsula with Portugal and is bounded to the north by the Pyrenees, which separate Spain from France. The Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera), 193km (120 miles) southeast of Barcelona, and the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa are part of Spain, as are the tiny enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the north African mainland. With the exception of Switzerland, mainland Spain is the highest and most mountainous country in Europe, with an average height of 610m (2000ft). The Pyrenees stretch roughly 400km (249 miles) from the Basque Country in the west to the Mediterranean Sea; at times the peaks rise to over 1524m (5000ft), the highest point being 3404m (11,169ft). The main physical feature of Spain is the vast central plateau, or Meseta, divided by several chains of sierras. The higher northern area includes Castille and León, the southern section comprises Castile/La Mancha and Extremadura.
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Spain occupies most of the Iberian Peninsula in southwest Europe, and its territory includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands in the Atlantic. Much of the mainland is high plateau, with mountain ranges, including the Pyrenees, in the north. The plateau experiences hot summers and cold winters—it is cooler and wetter to the north.
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Mainland Spain is dominated by high plateaus and mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevada. Running from these heights are several major rivers such as the Tagus, the Ebro, the Duero, the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. Alluvial plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia, in the east there are alluvial plains with medium rivers like Segura, J�car and Turia. Spain is bound to the east by Mediterranean Sea (containing the Balearic Islands), to the north by the Bay of Biscay and to its west by the Atlantic Ocean, where the Canary Islands off the African coast are found.
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Off mainland Spain in the Mediterranean the Balearic Islands offer remote beaches and some of the most explosive nightlife in Europe. Their Atlantic cousins the Canary Isles, a volcanic Archipelago of the coast of Morocco, can promise the white sands of Fuerteventura, the lush tropics of La Palma, the highland pine forests of El Hierro and the vigorous streets of Las Palmas.
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Spain’s mainland coastline extends for about 3,960 km (2,460 mi). The Balearic Islands have a combined coastline of about 1,060 km (620 mi), and the Canaries of about 1,160 km (720 mi). For most of its length the mainland coast is rugged. The coastal strip adjoining it rarely exceeds 30 km (19 mi) in width, and in many areas the coastal plain is broken up by mountains that descend directly to the sea. More extensive coastal lowlands occur only around the Gulf of Valencia on the central Mediterranean and near the mouth of the Guadalquivir on the southern Atlantic. Galicia, a region of northwestern Spain, is distinctive for the numerous shallow inlets (rías) that indent its coast.
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Mainland Spain