The town of Scuol sits near the northern end of the 100 kilometer Engadine Valley (valley of the Inn River) in eastern Switzerland
Cemetery at the hilltop church in Scuol
Chris waits for a bus in front of one of the large old decorated houses common in the northern Engadine
Engadine houses (like this one from 1616) are decorated with designs etched into the plaster, a style called sgraffito
High meadows above Scuol
Looking down the Engadine Valley from Scuol toward Tarasp
View from the top of Tarasp Castle, which dates mainly to the 13th century
The road up to the castle
The lower part of the village of Tarasp
The upper part of the village, at the base of the castle
The village of Guarda, our base in the northern Engadine, sits up on a plateau
We tried walking up the fields to the village, but the slopes are much steeper than they look
Looking down one of Guarda's main streets to the village church
Houses in Guarda typically feature oval doorways, multipaneled doors, sgraffito wall decoration, and a bench outside
The hallmark of a Swiss house in summer: red geraniums
A typical public fountain in Guarda, with a spout for people and a watering trough for animals
The view down the valley from Guarda. This is the spot where Melissa wants to be memorialized with a bench.
Melissa hits the trail in Switzerland's only national park, located just east of the Engadine Valley
The Swiss National Park ends at the ancient church and convent of Mustair, on the border with Austria
The courtyard of the convent, which has been home to Benedictine monks (and now nuns) for more than 1,200 years
A statue of Emperor Charlemagne, who founded the convent, in front of restored frescoes painted in the early 800s
A rare watercolor fresco of Christ painted in the early 800s
The central Engadine Valley and the town of St. Moritz as seen from Muottas Muragl
The same view at dusk
Looking toward the Silsersee, the southernmost lake in the Engadine Valley
A barn and house in the hamlet of Isola on the Silsersee
The Silsersee
The broad little Fex Valley sits on a plateau near the northern end of the Silsersee
We took a horse cart like this one from the town of Sils Maria to the end of the Fex Valley and walked back down
A stream in the Fex Valley
Melissa rests next to a stream of glacial meltwater on a hike to the viewpoint of Fuorcla Surlej
A small mountain lake at Fuorcla Surlej, with glaciers across another valley behind it
The village of Soglio perches on a hillside by the Swiss-Italian border near the southern end of the Engadine Valley
Soglio's gray stone houses look very different from the ones farther north up the valley
A little girl we saw playing in Soglio
Looking through the churchyard gate to the mountains beyond Soglio
