I think you have a totally wrong image of "how much sun" we have here in Europe. It might not be as strong as in Australia or Africa... But of course we have summers over here as well. :-D I think we had a few days of like 40 degrees+(Celsius) this year, where it's easy to get badly burned in a very short period of time.
Your post sounds like we don't have any sun at all, lol.