Originally Posted by
Goodoldflyer
It's not actually a precise term, and it's not factually incorrect.
This, from the wikipedia entry on Continental Europe (yes, there is one):
The most common definition of Mainland Europe excludes these continental islands: the Greek Islands, Cyprus, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Great Britain and Ireland and surrounding islands, Novaya Zemlya and the Nordic archipelago, as well as nearby oceanic islands, including the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Svalbard
But let me just clarify that I was thinking of Northern Europe (Germany or France).
My apologies for the thread drift.
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I believe the problem is that a large portion of Greece, including Athens, is not on a Greek Island - it is firmly on cotinental Europe. The reference you post is simply grouping all of the many Greek Islands together as an exception in the same way it mentions Sicily or Corsica. The former doesn't mean Greece isn't continental any more than the latter means Italy or France isn't.