We began our run today in the centre of Brussels outside the Creche Du Beginage. The Creche is a student pastoral centre housed in a former nunnery, and the residents had very kindly accommodated our running team the night before. Not only that, they cooked us a wonderful evening meal, invited us to their choir practice (where we learned a beautiful song in four part harmony) and laid on breakfast before we left!

The first challenge of the morning was to find a quick and safe route out of Brussels, as we were under time pressure. This task was made more interesting by the fact that our maps were all in Dutch and had different street names on them to those on the Belgian street signs. Still, after a few false starts, we were back on the open highway with the torch flame shining brightly under cloudy skies.

At the De Wereldreizigers Elementary School in Antwerp we met with a lovely bunch of young kids who were having their lunch break. We each spoke a few words of our native language so they could try to guess where we were from. Our team currently includes Hungarians, Slovenians, Finns, English, Scottish, French, Dutch, Slovakians, Czechs, Austrians, and even one Australian, so this game kept them busy for some time. We invited the children to join our team for the day so they quickly put down their lunch boxes and ran in relay round the hall with us - their eyes lighting up when it was their turn to hold the torch. We ran straight on to another Antwerp School just a short distance away, the elementary school in Prinsstraat. Here we were met in the playground by the entire school, so we held a massive relay with all the children, some of whom were very fast runners indeed.

Predictably we were a little behind schedule once again at this point so it was time for some very fast miles on the road north to The Netherlands. As with the southern border of Belgium, the northern border is completely open and you can't even see where it is - you just notice a change in the road signs and a flattening out of the countryside. Then you spot your first windmill and you realise you're in Holland. The Dutch police greeted us with a crew of motorbike outriders to escort us into the town of Zundert, the first place you reach after crossing the "border" (also famous as the birthplace of Vincent Van Gogh). We met with children from St Antonius and St Aloysius elementary schools, who joined us for a run through the streets to the town square. Here we stood on the town hall steps to sing our World Harmony Run song and receive an official welcome and message of support from the town's representative of sports, Mr Vermeulen.

Running further into The Netherlands we covered the miles quickly, aided by the total absence of hills and the presence of wide cycleways alongside all the highways. We finished the day in Breda where we were received at the KMA, the Royal Dutch Military Academy. The Lieutenant in command of the academy welcomed us and wrote a very encouraging message of support in our Harmony Run journal before the military sports team ran with us through the streets of Breda. Here we made quite an impact, as a good many of the townspeople were out shopping (it seems this is how Thursday evenings are spent in Holland) and many more were enjoying the open-air cafes in the squares and streets around the ancient church which stands at the heart of the town.

After a tasty meal at the academy, many of us were back out running in the early evening with members of Holland's largest running club, AV Sprint, who have over 1900 members. Their training sessions are held at a very modern athletics track on the edge of town, so we joined them for a lap of honour with the torch and a short run through the nearby forest. They could see we had run a fair few miles between us already, so a few kind members of the club took us back to the clubhouse for cups of tea and lots of running chat while the majority of the club carried on with their weekly long run.

Then it was back to the academy for a good night's sleep in military quarters to prepare for tomorrow's run to The Hague.

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Distance: 120km

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