Our day began with an early morning meeting at Niesky secondary school where the children were very attentive and receptive. Over 100 children, full of energy, ran with the torch in the playground. It was a mass of bobbing heads and cacophony of sound - laughter, shouting and running feet. All the runners fully enjoyed it too and if any of us were feeling sleepy before we arrived, we certainly were not when we left. We all left with smiles on our faces and all the children waving and smiling back. It is amazing the effect a smile and cheerfulness can have on people.

Another meeting at a secondary school in Kodersdorf quickly followed the first meeting where we talked to them about the Run during their morning break. There a young girl in a wheelchair held the torch, pushed around the playground by a young boy.

We held a similar meeting at Primary School Fischmarkt in Gorlitz, but under a hanging willow tree.

At Gorlitz the mayor at the old town hall met us. The mayor felt very strongly how important our Run was, not just for Europe, but also for the whole world. We had wished to stay longer as he wished to tell us more about the history of Gorlitz, but we had more schools to visit, and a scheduled ceremony at the three country point border (Germany, Poland and Czech Republic) later in the afternoon.

At a school in Ostritz we were somewhat surprised to be greeted by the children dressed in animal costumes. They all looked adorable.

They had been practising a play for the new children that will start at the school. The children were very funny and made us all laugh. They had such exuberance, enthusiasm and energy.

It was a similar case at Wilhelm Busch School in Zittau. As we entered the school playground we received a huge applause. The children were so friendly and we instantly made a connection with them. They were so well behaved and endearing as Mark told them about the Run and were very engaging.

All the children made a big circle and passed the torch to one another. It was very clear to see that harmony between children and between teachers was evident here. We left with even greater volume of noise from them than we arrived, as they chanted and shouted goodbye, and they ran to the gate with us. They didn't want us to leave and we really didn't want to leave them - they were such a delight to be around.

In Zittau Mark was lifted up to point to his name.

At Zittau we crossed the border into Poland, for 3 km then into the Czech Republic, where many local Czech runners at Hradek nad Nisou met us. There we had a ceremony at the three-country border with city mayors from the three border countries of Germany, Poland and Czech Republic.

We were welcomed by two local Czech boys, Pavel and Martin dressed in traditional costume playing the violin and harpsichord, and two local girls Michela and Jieka, also dressed in traditional costume, with bread and salt as a traditional welcome and homemade cakes and cookies.

Also at the border, Bogdan from Romania joined the International Team. We were glad to see him again as we had briefly ran with him when we were in Romania and he was inspired to join the International Team at a later date.

We had further ceremonies during the afternoon of our first 43 km of running in the Czech Republic at Jablone v Podjestedi.

Afterwards we had another ceremony in Kunratice , where young firemen and women ran with the torch.

There were more meetings in Cvikov and Sloup v Cechach.

The scenery was quite breathtaking at times.

Our final day in Germany had been the most energetic and rewarding. As always we all gained so much joy meeting so many children. Meeting children with the World Harmony Run torch is always special. Children will now be on their long summer vacations in countries that we will run through, so we probably will not meet large groups of children until September when they return. However, the children of Germany left us with abiding memories that will make us smile and recall their innocence and enthusiasm over the coming months.

But for the World Harmony Run there is no summer vacation - tomorrow we continue our run to Ondrej's home city, Prague.

---

Distance: 108km

Team Members:
Bogdan Copil (Romania), Daniel Schenke (Germany), Jadranka Grbic (Serbia), Jarek Werner (Poland), Mark Collinson (England), Marlen Bernhard (Germany), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Petar Mihaylov (Bulgaria), Petr Machacek (Czech Republic), Svetlana Gorshkova (Russia), Valentine Bebik (Ukraine), Zoltan Theobald (Hungary).

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

< Germany 13 July < Iceland 13 July < Ísland 13. júlí

Germany 13 August > Czech Republic 15 July > Ísland 15. júlí > Iceland 15 July >

Germany/Czech Republic July 14