Saturday morning greeted us with April weather again - with rainshowers, even hail and sun again while we were running through the hilly Eifel area from Prüm to our next meeting in Monschau.

Wind parks everywhere on the way.

...the wild daffodils are just one of the many endangered plants that grow abundantly in the nature parks of the Northern Eifel... 

On the road we had quite a number of nice encounters, including a few very interested journalists.

Running along the main street into pittoresque Monschau.

Most of the houses are built with a certain type of grey stone from the area, and the tradition is preserved by the city.

Mr Merten and a few of his co-workers welcomed our team in the city hall on behalf of the lady mayor of Monschau. They had prepared a generous supply of sandwich rolls with cheese and fruit and we had some very nice conversations. Mr Merten regularly takes part in the Oxfam trail walk and encouraged us to come back and do more on a weekday with children.

At Roetgen we were joined by a few more runners from Cologne.

Mr Eis, the mayor of Roetgen, was so happy he had decided to welcome the World Harmony Run on a Saturday afternoon. He, too, regretted very much that we were not able to visit the local school and invited us to come back next year for a three-country event with school children (from Germany, Belgium and Netherlands)

Short stop at the Europe place in Aachen (where I finished my Channel-triathlon Dover-Aachen in 2010).

A few locals joined us on the way from the Europe Square to the Synagoge.

In the Synagogue, Rabbi Mr Bohrer welcomed the runners and gave us a brief introduction into the background of the Synagogue and the Jewish tradition. As it was Sabbat, he was not allowed to toch the torch, but he seemed happy to receive our presentation including the World Harmony Run song presented right in front the shrine area.

Leaving the Synagogue we found the police waiting and they graciously agreed to lead us all the way through the pedestrian zone to the Mosque. I am not sure if we had found our way alone, but definitely a police car makes it look so much more official! So thank you very much to Aachen police!

At the Bilat-Mosque we were greeted absolutely enthusiastically by about 100 members.

The Mosque is the oldest one in Germany, and extremely proud of being an international Mosque, open to everyone, where Shiites, Sunnites, Arabs, Turks etc. are praying peacefully side by side.

Mr. el-Attar, deputy chairman of the Mosque, was all heart and joy and had a few extremely kind surprises for us.

First after the introductions we passed the torch around as always, and kids, teens and adults alike were eagerly going for the World Harmony Run stickers.

The Islamic community had printed a banner to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the World Harmony Run, which they gave us as a present to take with us, and made a beautifuly and very tasty "birthday cake" again with the World Harmony Run logo.

It was such a heartfelt exchange - everyone wished more of this would happen everywhere.

Our last event on Saturday was a surprise invitation to a "Heart Festival" Event in the Couven

Hall, where the music band joined our rendition of the World Harmony Run song.

Astrid and Jörg, the organisers, even surprised everyone with a short slide show about the run.

Also with adults the "feeling harmony in your heart" is a favourite part of our presentation.

And of course the hightlight: holding the torch and putting a wish into it.

We spent a most comfortable night in the "Schweizerhof Aachen"! Thank you for hosting our team!

Sunday morning, before continuing to Vaals/Holland, we had our last meeting in Aachen in front of the famous Cathedral (UNESCO world heritage site) with the administrative head of the Cathedral, Monsignore Mr Msgr Poqué...

...the Monsignore welcomed us and received the torch....

Thank you Germany! See you again soon in a few days!

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Video Message from Davidson Hepburn, President (2009 - 2011) of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for 25th Anniversary of the World Harmony Run and a vision for the decade: "Toward a Oneness-World".

Full Text of the 25th annversary message and link to 25 language informal Translations: http://www.worldharmonyrun.org/25

or Click on language button for separate youtube videos wth sub titles in varous languages

See also:

• Youtube video on African experience which illustrates IYY slogan "Our Year Our Voice" International Year of Youth - Zambia World Harmony. They surprisingly mention Presidents and UN Secretary-General in a unique way!

• Listen to the World-Harmony-Run song: 2 min version // 6 min

– Vasanti

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Distance: 101 km

Team Members:
Dipavajan Renner (Austria), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Sumahat Strohn (Germany), Mladen Vujaklija (Croatia), Vladimir Ilyasov (Russian Federation), Namitabha Arsic (Serbia), Layamut Tehrani (Austria/Iran), Vasanti Niemz (Germany), Endre Olah (Hungary)

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

Gallery: See more images!

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