Sandy Wood
Brain Game: The European Seven
by Sandy Wood - November 2, 2009 - 7:30 AM

THE SOLUTION:

They are the only independent nations in Europe that border only ONE other independent European nation:

Denmark borders only Germany;
Holy See borders only Italy;
Republic of Ireland borders only the United Kingdom;
Monaco borders only France;
Portugal borders only Spain;
San Marino borders only Italy;
United Kingdom borders only the Republic of Ireland.

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Comments (11)

  1. Technically, Ireland and the UK are not \on the continent\.

    I’d apologize for being picky,but this is mental_floss, after all

    posted by phil on 11-2-2009 at 9:11 am

  2. That one was too easy, didn’t even need the map.

    posted by Greg Strosaker on 11-2-2009 at 9:50 am

  3. And technically, UK and Ireland don’t “border” at all. The map I consulted shows a body of water between them. Going off to find a definition of border…..

    posted by KJ on 11-2-2009 at 9:53 am

  4. Psst… Northern Ireland (part of the UK) touches Ireland.

    posted by Bertrand on 11-2-2009 at 9:55 am

  5. immediately after i saw portugal, uk, ireland that i knew they all border another nation. didnt know it had to be this specific.

    posted by Rolan on 11-2-2009 at 9:56 am

  6. Great question! Always nice to start off a week with a right answer!

    posted by HeyBeckyJ on 11-2-2009 at 9:58 am

  7. Not to jump on the error wagon, but I spent the last 2 months studying for the GRE in my free time. During this time I learned that “to peruse” actually means to read or examine with great thoroughness. So a quick peruse is impossible.

    posted by anne on 11-2-2009 at 9:58 am

  8. I guessed that the answer was the one-border aspect honestly expecting the real answer to more elusive. Nice to start off the week right :-)

    posted by Ryan Smith on 11-2-2009 at 10:30 am

  9. Rolan, sorry to use the “independent nation” yadda yadda clarification, but our readers are far too smart and would have called me on it otherwise, with a few of the island possessions that are split between two nations.

    K.J., Ireland and the U.K. *do* really share a land border, since Northern Ireland is part of the U.K.

    And Anne, you’re absolutely correct. I’ll fix that in the text.

    posted by Sandy Wood on 11-2-2009 at 10:39 am

  10. i love geo questions!

    posted by karina on 11-2-2009 at 2:56 pm

  11. Phil, the United Kingdom & Ireland ARE on the continent of Europe. Only that they are not attached to mainland Europe. And the United Kingdom does border Ireland. Northern Ireland borders the Republic of Ireland. Simple geographical logic, sheeh…

    posted by Karl on 11-2-2009 at 8:32 pm

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