MVC 3 Razor Syntax - Partial View Menu.cshtml With Full Markup

This question appear when I worked with partial view (MVC3/Razor), but I am sure - it's clear Razor Syntax question, not related direct to partial view. So - I have partial view Menu.cshtml with full markup as:

@model IEnumerable<SportsStore.WebUI.Models.NavLink>
@foreach(var link in Model)
{
@Html.RouteLink(link.Text, link.RouteValues);
}

No problem - "parent" view call it @{Html.RenderAction("Menu", "Nav");} and all work as magic.
But, if I will edit the Menu.cshtml as:

@model IEnumerable<SportsStore.WebUI.Models.NavLink>
@foreach(var link in Model)
{
Html.RouteLink(link.Text, link.RouteValues);
}

(see - NO '@' before Html.RouteLink!) all just broke: now @{Html.RenderAction("Menu", "Nav");} output is totally empty, no one HTML tag. Want to know - what is the difference between two piece of code? I assume @ before foreach also automatically "drop into" and apply to Html.RouteLink as well? So - am I wrong?