How to Identify European Countries in Street View

Europe is one of the most challenging continents in geography guessing games because many countries share similar landscapes, architecture, and even languages. This guide breaks Europe into sub-regions and gives you the specific clues to distinguish between countries that look almost identical.

General European Clues

• Most of Europe drives on the right, except the UK, Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus.
• EU member states have blue highway signs with white text.
• EU license plates have a blue strip on the left with the country code and EU stars.
• Speed limits are in km/h everywhere except the UK.
• Most Western European countries have underground power cables, so fewer visible poles.

Western Europe

France

• White bollards with a red top band and red reflector — one of the most reliable France clues.
• French language on signs (look for accents: é, è, ê, ç).
• Blue and white road signs with specific French formatting.
• Distinctive French architecture: shuttered windows, mansard roofs in cities.

Germany

• German language — look for compound words (very long words) and the letter ß (Eszett).
• Very well-maintained roads and infrastructure.
• Distinctive yellow post boxes (Deutsche Post).
• Autobahn signs are blue with white text.

United Kingdom

• Left-hand traffic — the most immediate clue.
• English language but with British spelling and terminology.
• Speed limits in mph (miles per hour).
• Red post boxes and red telephone boxes.
• Green highway signs (not blue like EU countries).
• Yellow rear license plates (front plates are white).

Northern Europe (Scandinavia)

Sweden vs Norway vs Finland

• Sweden: Swedish language (uses å, ä, ö). Blue and yellow flag. Very flat in the south, forested in the north.
• Norway: Norwegian language (similar to Swedish but uses æ, ø, å). Red, white, blue cross flag. Very mountainous with fjords.
• Finland: Finnish language (uses double vowels: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu). Blue and white flag. Very flat, dense birch and pine forests, many lakes.
• Denmark: Danish language. Red and white flag (Dannebrog). Very flat terrain — no mountains.

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is defined by Soviet-era architecture and Cyrillic or Latin scripts with diacritical marks.

• Poland: Latin script with ą, ę, ó, ś, ź, ż, ć, ń. Red and white flag. Well-maintained roads. Distinctive yellow road signs.
• Czech Republic: Latin script with ř (unique letter). White, red, blue flag. Medieval architecture in town centres.
• Hungary: Latin script with ő and ű (double acute accent — unique to Hungarian). Red, white, green flag.
• Romania: Latin script. Blue, yellow, red flag (similar to Chad — look for Romanian text to confirm). Carpathian mountains visible.
• Bulgaria: Cyrillic script. White, green, red flag. More Mediterranean feel in the south.

Southern Europe

• Spain: Spanish language. Red and yellow flag. Dry, arid landscape in the interior. Olive trees and vineyards.
• Portugal: Portuguese language (look for ã, õ, ç). Green and red flag with a coat of arms. Atlantic coastline. Azulejo (blue tile) architecture.
• Italy: Italian language. Green, white, red flag. Roman ruins and Renaissance architecture. Cypress trees in Tuscany.
• Greece: Greek script (unique alphabet). Blue and white flag. White-washed buildings with blue domes. Mediterranean vegetation.