After a peaceful sleep in the monastery we awoke to the sound of rain on the windowsill.

After a hearty breakfast prepared by Doris, Anne and Petar we were ready to start our day’s running. But, before we left we said a big thank you to the nun and sang her the World Harmony Run Song , which she thoroughly enjoyed.

At the beginning of our run the hills stretched upwards and filled the horizon covered by the rain clouds.

At Vaduz we met Mr Tschutscher, the Minister of Sport for Liechtenstein who was extremely glad to receive us. He said that the key message that summed up harmony was how the torch was passed from hand to hand, heart to heart. When Ondrej passed him the torch he said, “As you pass the torch to me, hand to hand, heart to heart I also pass the torch back to you from my heart”. He mentioned that last week in Vaduz they had organized a team of Palestinians and Israelis to play football. Although they could not stop the current conflict, they had symbolically shown a red card to it. Despite the pouring rain he gladly ran with the torch around the square, and we said goodbye as we headed to Switzerland.

After a slight detour the runners went across a bridge that spans the River Rhine and connects Switzerland and Liechtenstein. This bridge had previously been dedicated in the cause of world harmony as part of one of WHR founder Sri Chinmoy's many initiatives.

The runners started to run on the cycle path along the river and then realizing they had gone the wrong way had to scramble up the steep slope. It was quite comical to watch.

On the other side of the bridge we had a group photograph beside the plaque dedicating the bridge in the name of world harmony.

Today was to be mainly dominated by more running than ceremonies, but the people we were to meet inspired us.

At Buchs Ondrej gave an interview to the local radio station and the interviewer was very much interested in the Run.

The rain slightly eased as we ran to Oberriet. Along the route there were the all too familiar sights of Switzerland - cows with bells around their necks, and the traditional Swiss wooden houses.

As you ran pass the fields you could hear the distinct sounds of the bells, but no cuckoo clocks! We passed a field of donkeys that were rather interested in our torch.

On the road to Oberriet we were filmed by regional television and she was more than happy for us to take a picture of her holding the torch.

At Oberriet we met the mayor, Walter Hess who had come back from his holiday to meet us. He said that the World Harmony Run will remind people that they can do something in their lives to create harmony and hopefully seeing our pictures in the newspapers and television, will inspire them to make change for the better. He continued, that he too tries to create harmony within his community and the flame represents the flame of harmony in his heart.

The route from Oberriet to Heiden was covered by the International second team and they got some of the hillier sections of today’s running. After the mountain running of Austria they found the running very challenging.

We all met up outside Heiden to run together to meet world famous Ironman Swiss triathlete Olivier Bernhard.

He won the Zurich Ironman four times and was twice World Dualthon World Champion. He is a close friend of our Swiss runners and is always willing to participate in the World Harmony Run. The national television filmed our meeting as we ran to the memorial of Henri Jean Dunant, founder of the Red Cross.

At this location we had a view of Lake Bodensee, the largest lake in Switzerland. Across the lake’s shore we could see Germany and Austria.

We ran with him for about 5 km and as we were running we met his wife and three young children (one boy aged 5 and the twins aged 3).

His children ran with us and they gleefully held the torch. We took a family photograph of all of them holding the torch - it was a picture of happiness.

We ran the undulating hills to St Gallen and on to Wil. The weather had brightened up and the sun shone for us. As the day closed the setting sun created beautiful light and tinged the clouds orange.

By the end of the day Mark had achieved his long run of 55 km. He initially only set his goal to do 30 km, but got inspired to run further. The World Harmony Run tends to have that affect on runners. The people that you meet also inspire you to run further.

In a field next to our accommodation our Peter Pan flew down to Earth to make new friends with some local Swiss cows. I don’t think these cows have ever met a Bulgarian before!

Today was the longest distance we will cover in one day in Switzerland, so the Team looks forward to less arduous days, and hopefully summer will fully return to us.

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Distance: 111km

Team Members:
Anete Klavina (Latvia), Anne Schulze (Germany),Doris Cott (Switzerland), Lachezar Rusev (Bulgaria), Mark Collinson (England), Prafulla Nocker (Austria) , Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Petar Mihaylov (Bulgaria), Petr Machacek (Czech Republic), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Spas Cholakov (Bulgaria) , Subarnamala Riedel (Germany), Terezia Hammel (Hungary), Veronika Kuliskova (Slovakia), Zoltan Theobald (Hungary).

Harmonemail:
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