Pis and Tourism

I have a habit of going to cities and not actually getting round to visiting any of it's notable sights. It's not something I do consciously. I just find it more natural (if not more exciting) to read a book at a cafe in Paris rather than go up the Eiffel Tower. This is the reason I am yet to see any of London's museums or monuments (I came across Big Ben completely by accident while I was lost).

As for Brussels, it never occurred to me that there was much in the city to justify venturing out of the house/pub on a weekend. However, a friend of mine came over from London this Saturday and on a piss rainy afternoon we had to go out to buy chocolates. As a result I got to see the Grand Place (it's called the finest square in Europe and I can see how on a sunny day it would be a good place to have a drink) and came across (again by accident) the city's symbol, the Maneken Pis. The Maneken Pis (picture right) is a 2 foot high statue of a boy peeing. Even on as rainy a day as last Saturday there were hordes of tourists near it, taking photographs. I was stunned. Child porn jokes aside, I could not figure why anyone would want to take pictures of a little statue of a boy peeing which hardly has an interesting back story. It was as if Lonely Planet was playing a typically Belgian joke on those who were stupid enough to buy their Brussels Guide, knowing that its readers would go (with camera in hand of course) where it told them to irrespective of whether it was a grand monument or an unremarkable statue of a little boy urinating.