Monday, September 20, 2004
I recently took a trip to Switzerland for a week-long school on "Condensed Matter Research". The school was structured so that we had afternoons off. On the flip side, the lectures went until 9:30 each night.
The school was held in the small town of Zuoz (in the foreground above), in the canton of Graubunden. Zuoz is in the Engadin, a valley known for its beauty. The river that flows through the Engadin is the En (or Inn). The "Engadin" is the "garden of the En".
An old stone fence with some flowers. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the flowers near the bottom of the fencepost are quite beautiful, though they aren't as showy as their purple neighbors.
Most of the houses and older buildings in Graubunden are decorated with sgraffiti, a technique where two colors are painted on the wall, and then the top layer is scratched away to form a design. The designs include both stand alone designs, like this ibex, and architectural features, like the faux column and window treatments. The ibex, being a symbol of Graubunden, is a popular design.
Here's another bit of sgraffiti that caught my eye. It makes me laugh, though I'm not sure why. This design notwithstanding, I saw more Graubunden and Zuoz flags in Zuoz than Swiss flags. Graubunden is one of the more isolated and independent parts of Switzerland. It even has its own (minority) language, Romansch, a descendent of Latin.
I hiked to the Val Trupchen in the Swiss National Park. We spotted a few ibex and other animals up high on the ridges surrounding the valley. There was a significant amount of fog that made for an atmospheric photo of these rock formations.
The school was held in the small town of Zuoz (in the foreground above), in the canton of Graubunden. Zuoz is in the Engadin, a valley known for its beauty. The river that flows through the Engadin is the En (or Inn). The "Engadin" is the "garden of the En".
An old stone fence with some flowers. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the flowers near the bottom of the fencepost are quite beautiful, though they aren't as showy as their purple neighbors.
Most of the houses and older buildings in Graubunden are decorated with sgraffiti, a technique where two colors are painted on the wall, and then the top layer is scratched away to form a design. The designs include both stand alone designs, like this ibex, and architectural features, like the faux column and window treatments. The ibex, being a symbol of Graubunden, is a popular design.
Here's another bit of sgraffiti that caught my eye. It makes me laugh, though I'm not sure why. This design notwithstanding, I saw more Graubunden and Zuoz flags in Zuoz than Swiss flags. Graubunden is one of the more isolated and independent parts of Switzerland. It even has its own (minority) language, Romansch, a descendent of Latin.
I hiked to the Val Trupchen in the Swiss National Park. We spotted a few ibex and other animals up high on the ridges surrounding the valley. There was a significant amount of fog that made for an atmospheric photo of these rock formations.
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