• Portugal is one of Europe’s smallest countries, covering an area of just 92,389 sq km. But despite its size, in a single day’s travel you can pass from impressive mountain ranges in the north to perfect Mediterranean beaches in the south.
• Mainland Portugal has a pleasant climate with long, hot summers and mild winters.
• It was the Portuguese who first began England’s obsession with tea: their explorers in the mid-17th century introduced it to Europe and wealthy tea enthusiasts did the rest.
• In the technology area, Portugal has one of the highest mobile phone possessions in the world.
• Football is the most popular and practiced sport in Portugal. As of March 2006, the Country was ranked 10th out of 205 countries by FIFA.
• The world’s only source of cork for closing wine bottles is Portugal and around 15 billion natural cork bottle-stoppers are produced every year. Cork is cultivated very carefully – trees have to mature for 25 years before their first bark is stripped.
• As of 2006, 55% of Portuguese energy production is made by coal and fuel powerplants. The other 40% is produced by hydroelectrics and 5% by wind energy (an increasing focus over the last few years).
• Portugal’s highest point is Mount Pico in Pico Island, an ancient volcano, at 2,351m.

Mount Pico in Pico Island as viewed from Faial Island.