On this day we had a lot of meetings. In the morning we went back once more to Amsterdam. The first meeting of the day was with the Dutch soccer-team AJAX, famous in Holland but also outside the country for its world-renowned soccer players like Johan Cruijff and Marco Van Basten. At 10.30am the team entered the training pitch at the Amsterdam Arena Stadium, and the manager of the team, David Endt, welcomed us. He was very happy to meet us and introduced us to the team and trainers.

Although their training still had to start, all the players one after the other happily held the Harmony Torch. Then pictures of the soccer team were taken together with our international team. To thank them for receiving us we gave the manager a World Harmony plaque. He wrote an inspiring message in our guest book, which goes through all the European countries our team runs through. In the meantime the soccer team continued with their workout.

Going back to Culemborg, we were warmly invited into Willemien Eetwaar: a gorgeous food store where all kinds of delicacies from many countries are sold. Willemien herself is a good friend of one of the Dutch runners. We introduced ourselves to her and sang the World Harmony Run song for her. In the meantime, customers went on with their shopping. In a restaurant in the back of the store we were served a delicious spinach soup and sandwich from the oven.

From there on we finally started to run. Our third meeting was with the mayor of Vught, 45 km away. The team split up into three groups so that we could cover this distance in two hours. We all met each other again in time in Vught. The Mayor received us in a beautiful white castle, which was the Town Hall. He showed us around the rooms and talked for some time to the international runners.

10km further on, we met another Mayor in Boxtel. In front of the Town Hall this friendly Mayor received us with a personal message for the World Harmony Run team. The local press was there and took pictures of us for an article in the local newspapers.

From Boxtel we ran our last 20km to Eindhoven, the city where the run ended for that day. But our last visit was to Anky van Grunsven, who had kindly invited us to her house between the green pastures of the quiet village of Erp. Anky is of course the dressage Olympic champion of both 2000, with the legendary horse Gestion Bonfire, and 2004, with the new young star Salinero: a truly remarkable achievement.

On the very day that we were visiting, a statue was unveiled in Erp, of Bonfire, which we passed on the way up. So it was a festive day for Anky and her friends.

Unfortunately, only three of us could make it to see Anky because of logistical reasons (one of our team members got lost in Eindhoven for a while). When we arrived, we first met with a few great kids, and then Anky, friendly as ever, came to hold the torch in front of the stable of the champions Bonfire and Salinero. Afterwards we entered the stable (without torch!) and were happy we could say hello to the horses, impressively big and beautiful. It was a very good ending to a very good day.

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Distance: 75km

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