The Ten Boom house is located on Barteljorisstraat, in an area of nice shops. The first floor of the building is still a jewelry & watch shop. To enter the museum, you go to the side of the building and enter at the side door. There are periodic tours in English, and the times for those are posted. The tour was free, and very informative.
The most striking thing to me was the tiny size of the rooms in the house, especially Corrie's bedroom, where the hiding place was built. The hiding place itself was barely large enough for six to eight people to hide, standing up. I'm sure it didn't take long for the space to become stifling hot and claustrophobic.
In the Anne Frank house, the Jewish people who were hiding had several rooms that were hidden away from the public. But here at the Ten Boom house, the residents used the family bedrooms, sitting room and dining room, and fled to the tiny hiding place whenever there was danger of being discovered. They had practiced until they were all able to escape to the hidden room within 70 seconds. More information here.
The photo to the left shows the exterior of the Ten Boom house and shop. On the right is Corrie's bedroom, with the hiding place opened up, and the closet door open to show the secret entrance under the bottom shelf.
We had a lunch of soup and sandwiches at the nearby open cafe, and enjoyed watching people (as all the cafe patrons do!) A happy wedding party was celebrating at St. Bavo church, and they posed for photos on the church steps. Of course, on the way back to the car, I couldn't resist taking some photos of bicycles and roses. I'm always so awed at the way people in European cities can grow these glorious roses by their doorways, with only a few feet of ground!
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