Tuf Tuf Bookshop, Antwerpen

Tuf Tuf ... a secondhand bookshop on Geuzenstraat in Antwerpen.

What stunned me about this store was its stacks of books ... aisles are created by piles of books. In New Zealand this arrangement would be a massive earthquake risk.

And as if that wasn't stunning enough ... being greeted by Vargas and Liliane was something else again ... Aslan and Shakra, the Cocker Spaniel crowd, also hang out behind the counter.

Talking with the Tuf Tuf bookstore owners, Gilbert and Liliane, I learned that two of the dogs were named after erotic magazine illustrators ... Vargas in Playboy and Aslan in Lui, a French magazine. I never knew that Playboy sometimes used illustrations as opposed to photographs ... until today.

The store opened for business back in 1989 in Oude Koornmarkt, moving to Geuzenstraat in 2002. So ... if the journey is your destination, then locating books here would satisfy you. Liliane, Gilbert, Vargas, Aslan and Shakra simply add to the experience.

I'm still smiling.