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Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent (particularly by the British, Azoreans, Madeirans, Balearic and Canary Spaniards, Icelanders and other European island nations plus peninsular Scandinavians), is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands.[1]
The most common definition of continental Europe excludes the Greek Islands, Malta, Sicilly, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Iceland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom and its dependencies. Most definitions of continental Europe extend the boundaries of the continent to its standard boundaries, the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe