Spain: a sketch ( II )

A rough outline of the geography of Spain: It occupies most of the Iberian Peninsula, two minor archipielagos (Canary Islands, by the norhtwestern shores of Africa, and Balearic Island in the Mediterranean Sea to the east of the peninsula) and two autonomic cities just across the strait in the Moroccan coast (Ceuta y Melilla), plus a few other little islands close to our shore and Africa. Portugal and the Atlantic to the west and South, Cantabric Sea and France to the north, the Mediterranean on the East side and the strait of Gibraltar and Africa behind it, to the South, are its borders.

A 600 m. in average mesa covers about half the area of the peninsula (the central part), surrounded by middle ranged mountain systems. This Central Mesa features the capital region and city of Madrid, roughly in its centre, the two Castilles (Castilla León, kind of Northwest of Madrid and Castilla La Mancha, kind of South East), Extremadura (South of C. León) and Aragón (North of C. La Mancha). The north coast presents (West to East) Galicia, Cantabria, Asturias, the Basque Country and Navarra (the former touching Aragon to the East and the Pyrinees to the north, and thus actually not in the coast). As for the eastern shores (north to south) we boast Catalonia, Valencian Region, and Murcia. South of Murcia all the way to Portugal lies the golden sunny jewel of Andalucía.

As a rule of thumb, climatic conditions tend to go from humid and fresh in the north to hot and arid in the south, temperatures are usually more severe in the central mesa and milder in the fringes and the Canary Islands have an irritating nice weather (irritating for those of us who do not enjoy it, obviously). Of course there are a quite a few exceptions to the rule, including mountainous climatic conditions and a couple of microclimates like the tropical area occurring in the coast of Granada (much milder and more humid than the rest of hot and equally sunny Andalucian coast), the Coto de Doñana National Park (second biggest area of marshes in Europe behind the French Camarge) also in Andalucia, or the awkwardly sunny (awkwardly for Galicia, greenest, rainiest and most humid region in the country) Rías Bajas in the north west corner of Spain, to quote some. (more to come)