Gallery: June 19 — Zernez

A walk through Zernez on the first full day there.

One of the churches on the hill.

In the center of the village, a good example of the town's Classical look.

All trompe-l'oeil sgraffito.

Neat cupola on this building.

Closeup of a window detail repeated around the building.

A recent date like 1992 tells when the building's sgraffito work was renewed.

A lot of Engadin buildings have the kind of corner recess that you see here, and I'm not entirely sure of their purpose. It could be like the roof & wall cutoffs that are so numerous in Canton Bern, or maybe it has something to do with taxation according to size of building footprint, which is the reason for cantilevered over-floors on olde English buildings. But you would think the rebate wouldn't be that great for a little corner like this.

Painted lettering.

Trail along the En, with lunch spot, I believe.

Further along. This area really had a Rocky Mountains kind of atmosphere.

Fuzzy (not sure why the camera didn't focus here) shot of the great Piz Linard to the north.

One of the few buildings that survived the 1872 fire; it appears not to have been reworked since then.

Often there are poems.

I was struck by the subtle variations of color and texture on this stretch of wall.

Very wide door with modern sgraffito around. This and the next few houses are in a newer part of town.

Ibex!

I think I learned what the building with this tower is, or was originally, but I've forgotten. But it's a distinctive landmark, especially with its inverted-keyhole windows.

Dense sgraffito, unusually so for Zernez, though not so much for other towns, as you'll see.

I think the stark white, smooth accents on the rough gray ground here are pretty great.

Very modern decoration. You can tell there's a lot of enthusiasm for keeping up this tradition and also for bringing new ideas into it.

Massive gateway of a small walled garden next to the street.

Here's the other corner of the garden.

A building right in the middle of town, with a phone booth and ATM outside — a very useful building indeed. I also like how the 1-2-1 composition of the windows on the left mass of the building is continued in the circular windows at the top of the wall. Also, check out how deep the shadow of that eave is. You can tell it's near the solstice.

Nice grocery store with cheap Denner yogurts; the site of the transaction where I spoke entirely Swiss German.

A sign on the back of the buses. It seemed amusingly cryptic at the time, I remember, for some reason. But now it's completely clear, as it's supposed to be: when you're coming up to a bus that's signalling to get back on the road from a stop, yield to it. I don't know why I was confused before.

The lettering on the signal building at the station, in a style shared by the other Engadin train station.