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[Odler]

The obvious has just downed upon me: America is the most western of all western lands (grab a map). If you fly west from the U.S west coast across the Pacific, you will hit the Far Eastern countries first.

But if you cross the Atlantic from the East coast, you hit Western

Europe.

If you fly as south as you can on the west coast of Europe, you will

reach the Iberian Peninsula, which is a real peninsula, since it

looks like an island attached by one of its side (the Pyrenees

Mountains) to the rest of the European continent.

The Iberian Peninsula is shared by smaller Portugal facing the

Atlantic, and by larger Spain, on the other side, facing the

Mediterranean Sea. Each side has its set of appending islands: the

Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea (among them, Ibiza, featured in Blind Date, the TV show), and the Canary Islands in the Atlantic.

The peninsula is clipped from northern Africa by the Straight of

Gibraltar; Morocco is on only 200 miles away.

Spain and Portugal have such an intertwined history, waging several

fratricidal wars, and sharing the same hours of glory, that it is

difficult to comprehend how they did not end up one. Even more puzzling is the fact that their people speak different languages.

Portugal has a population about the size of Cuba's (10 millions

versus 11 for the Caribbean island). It is slightly smaller in

surface area (35,000 square miles versus 40,000).

In your reading, try not to confuse Iberia, an ancient region of

Transcaucasia (the ex-Soviet Republic of Georgia) with the area

occupied by Spain and Portugal.

In Portugal, 94% of the population is catholic. Few are Protestants

and Muslims.

The country today holds the least shiny economic record of all the fifteen members of the E.U. But the people of Portugal have a reputation of genuine warmth almost unmatched in Western Europe.

(The Traveller, Saturday, February 9, 2002)