SpainMainland

Yellow cylindrical mailboxes carry the Correos logo.

"CALLE" on a street sign is Spanish for street. In Catalan-speaking areas it may read "CARRER" instead.

Pedestrian-crossing signs usually show 8 stripes on the crosswalk. Only Spain and Andorra use 8.

Red warning signs have no border, except for the STOP sign.

Like the postboxes, bollards are also yellow, sometimes with yellow reflectors. Occasionally you'll see a slightly different-looking one.

Small orange or yellow signs beside the road often show a road number.

Road lines are mostly white, though occasionally yellow.

Transmission towers are common, often with their base set in concrete.

French tiles (F-shape) and Spanish tiles (S-shape) are made the same way, but French tiles are flat while Spanish tiles are half-round (unconfirmed).

Language varies by region, and street-sign spelling can help narrow it down. The most common street-name word is "CALLE".

• East: Catalan. Streets read "CARRER"
• West: Galician. Streets read "RÚA"
• Part of the north: Basque. Streets read "KALEA"

Ring road and highway numbers often begin with letters identifying the city — "BI", for instance, means near Bilbao.

Low oak trees dotting grassland at spacing that keeps them from touching, with cattle or pigs grazing beneath — that's dehesa.

Plantations of tall, straight-trunked trees with whitish bark peeling off in long strips and drooping leaves are eucalyptus. Most common in Galicia in the northwest, and also common along the coasts of Cantabria and Asturias.

The tree Pinus pinea has an uneven distribution, most common in southwestern Andalucía (Huelva and Córdoba provinces). There are also sizeable stands in Valladolid province in the centre and along the Catalan coast.

The Aleppo pine — the sort you'd expect to see near Marseille — is found only in the eastern half of Spain, especially near the sea. It's also common on offshore islands like the Balearics.

Low trees planted at even intervals right up a hillside are an olive grove. If it's all olives to the horizon, you're in inland Andalucía.

An orchard of low, dark green evergreen trees planted in neat rows, with irrigation channels running around the fields, is an orange grove. Valencia accounts for about half of Spain's citrus fields.

Low-trained grapevines lined up in perfect order to the horizon, on flat, dry land — that's Castilla-La Mancha. Among the largest vineyards in Europe.

Greenhouse farming thrives in Almería province — the white patches near the southeastern coast in particular are packed with plastic greenhouses.

Rice production is almost entirely confined to the well-watered regions of Sevilla, Extremadura, the Ebro Delta, and Valencia — rice paddies are hard to find anywhere else.

• Sevilla (the Guadalquivir River wetlands)
• Extremadura (along the Guadiana River)
• Ebro Delta
• Valencia

A gently rolling plateau of wheat fields — green in early summer, golden in summer — stretching to the horizon, with almost no trees or fences, means the northern Meseta (Castilla y León). It's known as "Spain's breadbasket".

The sunny southern half of the country has many solar power installations. Besides solar panels, you may also spot tower- or trough-type concentrated solar plants.

Dozens of white wind turbines lined up along a ridge or plateau top suggest places like northern Castilla y León or Aragón. There are almost none along the northern coast in Cantabria, or in Madrid.

A long, narrow, box-like hut raised on stone posts is a hórreo — a granary protecting grain from damp and rodents, with flat anti-rodent stones wedged onto the tops of the posts. Found mainly in Galicia and Asturias.

An endless, gently undulating plateau with almost no trees, and mountains visible only far in the distance — that's the interior Meseta (Central Plateau).

Galicia and the area near the northern coast are lush and green.

Spain's Canary Islands also have the same signs and bollards as mainland Spain.

Around Picos de Europa National Park, there are villages and roads squeezed between limestone massifs.

On the north coast of the African continent lies Melilla, one of Spain's autonomous cities.

On the north coast of the African continent lies Ceuta, one of Spain's autonomous cities.