On this sunny autumn morning we had a very nice meeting with 500 schoolchildren. On this day they had organized a sponsoring run for kids with terminal illnesses and we were invited to give the start to this event.

After a short open air opening ceremony at the sports field, the teacher asked the children to form a line around the stadium, so that the torch could be passed from hand to hand. Later we ran one lap around the field with all the children.

We were told that this school has a unique educational approach. It is called a neighbourhood school, because the school focuses on integrating its activities with the neighbourhood. Also, for example the classes from 1 - 3 are combined with the older children teaching the younger children.

One teacher pointed out that the children are dealing with this in a very harmonious way.

Our next stop in Leipzig was an exhibition at the Chinese Centre of Arts and Culture of the world famous Terracotta army from China.

We were warmly welcomed by the organizer of the exhibition, who appeared very open and showed a lot of interest and concern for the World Harmony Run. She gave us a quick, but very impressive tour through the beautiful museum (a smaller reproduction of the Guggenheim museum in New York) and we were touched by her love and dedication to the project.

Part of us had seen the soldiers before last winter on a tour through Xian in China, where they originally come from; therefore the Chinese scenery, music, statues, calligraphy and decoration were somehow familiar to us and brought back sweet memories of our latest trip to China.

After we had split up the team, one part of it got into an unexpected reception at Regis Breitingen, where the mayor and more then 300 cheerful schoolchildren expected them.

The others, who had left already for Altenburg, arrived with a big torch flame at the market place where we attracted a lot of attention. The mayor of Altenburg who was waiting for our arrival likes biking and swimming and joined our run for a few meters.

In the afternoon we had a very sweet reception at the beautiful market place of Gössnitz.

The marketplace is built in a circle, framed by typical German, middle European buildings. The atmosphere was very inviting and friendly and a representative of the city, many people and sweet children were waiting for us.

A runner from Altenburg LG joined us to the next town of Meerane...

...where we arrived after a nice up-hill-run. The mayor gave us a short and warm-hearted reception in the town hall and soon we had to take off for our last reception in Zwickau.

Zwickau that counts a little less then 100.000 inhabitants was the last city of this day. We were received by the mayor, the sports representative and the sports teacher of the Humbold school, where we will have our first reception the next morning.

We ended this intense day of running at a nice Italian restaurant, where we thanked our country coordinator for all his good work and efforts.

---

Distance: 104km

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

< Germany 26 Sept.

Germany 28 Sept. >