We started running from Marche en Famenne on a sunny beautiful morning in very scenic countryside with green fields and coniferous forests on the hillside.

Yesterday we met Mr Lobet at the town hall of Marche en Famenne, who is a principal at the village school of Humain.

The school is situated right next to a farm and as we ran towards the school the farm dog bounded up to us and friendly barked at us. In the school playground the children from ages three to eight cheered and applauded us. The cows in the field bordering the playground looked on and mooed, and the cockerel was very noisy in the background as we talked to the children. The children we very keen to run with the torch and once they got the opportunity they flew around the small playground.

The young children were a delight to be with, and they noisily and enthusiastically waved us goodbye.

In contrast our next place was all serene and tranquil as we visited Chevetogne Monastery. This international Benedictine monastery is dedicated to the unity of all Christians, and unites Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox faiths.

There are 28 monks from 11 different nationalities currently resident at the monastery. One monk commented that the monastery allows each to follow their own inner spirituality, and is open to other religions. Inside they kindly gave us refreshments and the obligatory Belgian chocolate. We're started to acquire a taste for this delicious chocolate now!

We spoke to four monks about the Run for quite a while and sang them the World Harmony Run Song and two more songs. Brother Andrew from Canada gave us a tour of the two churches at the monastery - one Byzantine and the other Latin. His talk was extremely informative, interesting and engaging.

We were fortunate to coincidentally meet Bishop Bär.

Annemarie wished to buy frankincense and Ondrej a CD from the shop but Brother Andrew insisted that he didn't want any money, and that it was a gift. His kindness and generosity was very touching.

Before we said our farewells each of the four monks offered a prayer whilst holding the torch. It seemed as if harmony and a spiritual force was being pulled down from above into the flame, and each of us could sense something powerful and moving. As harmony is about friendship, the monk said that friends should keep in touch and meet again. We heartily vowed to return again next year to this most wonderful spiritual place.

At the border of the city of Brussels we all met up after running in the hot afternoon; the temperature read 32 degrees Celsius on one of the petrol stations' temperature gauges. Summer has returned, and we're ever so happy. It is a sharp contrast to the weather we experienced in Iceland.

We ran to the magnificent and world famous Brussels city hall where Sanjaya joined us to film the occasion, and also we met up with Abhisar, who will have a very influential role tomorrow when we visit the European Parliament and meet some Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

In the ornate and high ceiling room of the city hall we had drinks whilst we waited for the Bruno de Lille, Deputy Mayor of International Solidarity for Brussels. There was a vote in progress so his presence was needed and after 10 minutes he joined us with a beaming smile.

For the second consecutive year he has greeted the World Harmony Run, but this year a new set of runners. He wrote a message of goodwill in our World Harmony Run book:

"Peace does not simply fall out of the air; it takes quite some effort to able to live in harmony. The city of Brussels wants to make a contribution to a world full of peace. Therefore we are happy to find in you enthusiastic, sharing partners to reach that goal".

From the city hall balcony we sang the World Harmony Run Song, much to the astonishment of many passing tourists in the city square.

We will now be in the photographs of many tourists' photo albums.

We ran from the city hall to the cathedral and this completed our day's running.

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Distance: 117km

Team Members:
Abhinabha Tangerman (Holland), Abhisar Laza (Czech Republic), Annemarie Beumer (Holland), Elke Lindner (Germany), Friederike Makowka (Switzerland), Karin Wijnkoop (Holland), Klaus Schulz (Germany), Mark Collinson (England), Marton Fekete (Hungary), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Peter Zuidema (Holland), Sabine Meyer (Belgium), Sanjaya Spettigue (England), Vladimir Ilaysov (Russia).

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

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