Day 24 Friday 9th February 2007 Back on the bus and off to our last city, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, famous for extraordinary paintings, cheese, clogs and liberal attitudes. As we drove through the Netherlands towards Amsterdam it was time for our last history lesson. The Dutch were originally bound with Belgium and Luxemburg and known as the Low Countries, until the 16th century. In 1795 the French invaded and occupied the Netherlands until 1815 when the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (including Belgium and Luxemburg) was formed. In 1830 Belgium rebelled and became an independent country, Luxemburg followed 9 years later. The Netherlands, who were neutral during WW1 tried to remain neutral during WW2, were invaded by the Germans, who devastated the country and killed most of the Dutch Jews. In the 1960’s Amsterdam became
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