First thing in the morning we met up with the manager of the Racket-Center , Dr Matthias Zimmermann, and the young tennis stars of tomorrow ran with us before their five hours of training for the day.

As this was our last day before taking a two-week break, it was a short day’s running, but still a very busy one.

It had rained heavily during the night, and although it had stopped by morning it was to rain again later and then brighten up to reveal a beautiful sunny afternoon.

We ran along the river to Heidelberg and into the town square.

We met some wonderful children from ten different nationalities that were from an inter-religious organisation (CISV).

After we sang the World Harmony Run Song they sang their song for us about how people from different countries can co-operate and be friends with one another. It reflected so much the philosophy of the Run.

They all enthusiastically ran with the torch.

We then ran to the Volkerkundemuseum where we spent some time to have a group photograph beside the statue of the Buddha, who held the torch, and at the "Oneness-Tree", a gingko biloba temple tree opposite the Buddha, which was planted during a ceremony in 2001.

By midday our day’s running was over, and now began the major task of the day. Everything had to be taken out of both World Harmony Run vehicles and thoroughly cleaned for our return to Germany in September. By working as a team everything was cleaned and sorted and rearranged within two and half hours. We didn’t recognise the interior of the vehicles, and the World Harmony Run torches gleamed.

During the day we began to say our goodbyes to members of the Team as they left to return home. Firstly we said bon voyage to Bernadett and Terezia who return to Hungary . Terezia was a hilarious member of the Team and she gave us so much joy - especially the boys mimicking her Hungarian accent (I know we shouldn’t but we couldn’t resist it, especially Ondrej!)

Feeling very hungry we were invited to Waves restaurant where we had a fantastically delicious meal.

In the evening sunlight we drove along the river to our accommodation.

One by one we said goodbye to Anete, Veronika and Petr as they return home. I never like saying goodbye, especially when you’ve spent so much time and gained so much joy from their company and running with them.

So by the end of the night we were just four - Ondrej, Mark, Petar and Sandro.

We look forward to recommencing our running in Iceland on 31 August.

Distance: 17km

Team Members:
Anete Klavina (Latvia), Bernadett Hammel (Hungary), Mark Collinson (England), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Petar Mihaylov (Bulgaria), Petr Machacek (Czech Republic), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Terezia Hammel (Hungary), Veronika Kuliskova (Slovakia), Vasanti Niemz (Germany)

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