Europe - Eŭropo

Europe is sometimes regarded as a continent, sometimes as a peninsula. It is very densely populated and is spoken there in 209 different languages. It is bordered by Europe to the north Arctic Ocean, east mountain range Urals and river Urals, southeast Caspian and Black Sea, south Mediterranean and to the west Atlantic.

Much of a country in Europe is united in political unity European Union.

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  Stonehenge and England, Great Britain

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  Eiffel Tower in Paris, France

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  Colosseum in Rome, Italy

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  Parthenon in Athens, Greece

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  Midnight sun at Northern Cape en Norway

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  Pelicans in the Danube River Delta

Regions and countries

Click map : click on a region or city you want to explore!

The regions and countries of Europe are as follows:

Dependent territories

Faroe Islands depends on Denmark, Gibraltar of Great Britain and Svalbard and Jan Mayen of Norway.

Cities

• Cities with more than a million inhabitants (in alphabetical order):

• Some other important cities:

Languages

In Europe, several dozen different languages ​​are spoken (hundreds if all dialects are included). Most languages ​​in Europe belong to a group of Indo-European languages, which is divided into the following subgroups:

• Germanic languages: English, Danish, German, Icelandic, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish
• Romance languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Ladino, Portuguese, Romanian, Sardinian
• Slavic languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian, Ukrainian
• Celtic languages: Breton, Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic
• Baltic languages: Latvian, Lithuanian

Independent Indo-European languages ​​are Greek and Albanian. Maltese is a mixed language.

Indo-European are in Europe Basque, Finnish and related languages ​​(Estonian, Karelian, Komi, Sami, Udmurt, etc.), Hungarian, Nenets, Turkish and related languages ​​(Tatar, Chuvash, Bashkir).

To move

Licenses and visas within Europe

Schengen area:

 EU member state participating in Schengen

 An EU member state not participating in Schengen but forced to join

 EU member state self-excluded from Schengen

 Non-EU state participating in Schengen

 A non-EU state actually participating in Schengen

 A non-member state of the EU with an open border

There are two similar but different regulations in Europe, affecting two similar but different sets of countries.

1) European Union gives permission to tourists who are citizens of Europe to travel within the European Union without the need for a visa; ID cards (IDs or passports) are usually needed, also for children. Travelers can also bring personal belongings without customs controls.

2) The Schengen Treaty gives permission to tourists to cross borders without personal checks (IDs are usually required but are checked only on separate occasions). The treaty is not about things.

Further travel agreements apply between the United Kingdom and Ireland, and between the northern countries.

The European Union has 27 countries (see article). Additionally, a number of small states (Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican, Switzerland, Liechtenstein) have separate agreements with the European Union on travelers. The United Kingdom also agreed to separate rules with the European Union.

The Schengen Treaty is valid in most European Union countries, but (so far) not in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland; on the other hand, it was also joined by Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway, which are not part of the European Union. Andorra, Monaco, San Marino are not part of the Schengen Area but for other reasons there are no controls at their borders.

Watch out for exceptions!

1. Each state has the right to temporarily suspend the validity of the Schengen treaty for important reasons (check!).
2. In some areas of the acceding countries, the treaty does not apply: most of the non-European property of France and the Netherlands, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Svalbard.
3. About Ceuta, Melilla, Mount Athos special rules apply.

The rules for tourist visits from countries outside the Schengen Area apply to all countries in that area: either a visa is not required (so it is possible to visit all those countries without a visa) or it is required for all. Citizens of the United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, etc. do not need a visa. There are exceptions here too - be sure to check!

Drive a car

Remember that in Europe motorists have to drive next to the right bank of the road, except in Britain and Ireland, where they must travel along the left bank.

European road sign

There are many highways in Europe.

The main international routes are numbered at European level (not only within the European Union).

Walk

International routes for pedestrians numbered by ERA-EWV-FERP

Many countries in Europe have long, well-kept paths for pedestrians.

Often, the longest are ancient pilgrimage routes, including:

• the James Road, a bundle of roads leading to the tomb of the apostle James in Santiago de Compostela (Spain);
• the Via Francigena, followed by the medieval pilgrims to Rome (and Brindisi) from England and France.

There are additionally other types of ancient roads, among which long mountain roads, such as the Via Alpina, Alpine Road, and the GTA in the Alps.

Several bike paths, especially those known as'greenway'(en: greenway) is also suitable for walking.

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  The Way of St. James

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  Via Francigena

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  Alpine Road (Via Alpina, 5 routes)

Bicycles

Eurovelo Network

Europe offers good and even great routes for cyclists.

There are several types of bike paths: official (at some institution) or unofficial; only for bicycles, mixed (pedestrian bicycles), on roads (alongside cars), etc .; asphalt, earth etc.

From another point of view, bike paths can be more or less easy, and require different levels of experience. Difficulties may arise from the slope, especially in mountainous areas, from the length of each stage, from the lack of clear indications. Also the weather, depending on the place and the month, can make the walk difficult.

Information on the conditions of the main national and international cycle paths can be found online.

In Europe, the network is worth mentioning EuroSail, containing ca. 60,000 km of cycle paths and the so-called 'green roads' (france voies vertes).

In recent years new roads have been added: EV13, EV14, EV15, EV17, EV19.

However, remember that in almost all roads there are stages that are not yet ready or only partially ready. Be sure to find out!

Boat cars

Public transportation

Trains

It is often necessary to buy train tickets on site in each specific country. For long distance and international tickets, sometimes travel agencies can help. To find out the connections, however, almost all European countries have some kind of interface with the Deutsche Bahn train database, which you can directly consult in bahn.de. It does not allow all tickets to be purchased directly, but it does show almost all train connections and more across Europe to even through Russia to Pyongyang and Beijing. International trains in Western Europe are often a version of ICE / TGV / Thalys / Eurostar while in Eastern Europe there are more Eurocity trains and night trains.

Buses

Long-distance buses are a cheap and practical way to travel through Europe, minimizing the amount of transitions and providing internet and energy, and because trains are often poorly connected one does not necessarily arrive much more slowly and uncomfortably than by train. The big networks are especially of FlixBus and Eurolines, which is bought by FlixBus, and more local companies on the edge of the European network such as BlaBlaBus (ex OuiBus de SNCF, now part of BlaBlaCar), IC Bus of Deutsche Bahn and other attempts by train companies to provide transportation where trains do not go easily.

Local / country buses usually but not always allow to pay the driver for a ticket, and where this is not possible often but there are not always machines to arrange tickets. If you are particularly unlucky you need to find a local store that sells the tickets. For more specific details, see the page for the country you plan to visit. Large European countries such as Spain, France and Germany often also depend on long-distance bus companies for part of the domestic transport.

Ships

Cableways

References and notes