OK so its official name is the Pabellón de la Navegación, but the boys spotted some extremely piratical-looking sailors on posters when we were still ten minutes away, so it immediately became the Pirate Museum.

This was one of the boys’ favourite days out. The Museum tells the story of Seville’s nautical history and its role in the great voyages of exploration across the Atlantic Ocean that allowed Europeans to map out the rest of the planet from the 15th century onwards. It’s a new museum and makes use of technology throughout to bring the exhibits to life.

WB mums particularly liked the story of Catalina de Erauso (aka ‘La Monja Alférez’, the Lieutenant Nun) who spent all her life disguised as a man, fighting for the King of Spain in the New World. She was so successful that in 1626 Pope Urban VIII gave her a special dispensation to allow her to continue to wear men’s clothing. The WB boys did not find her story in any way remarkable but they loved her sword!

The museum has an interactive session which lets children navigate a virtual ship. They can raise and drop sails, shoot pirates, pump out seawater and load booty or cargo. We put ours to work until they got hungry. Unfortunately the museum cafe was closed (for a wedding with 40 kids in attendance, see earlier post) so we had to pop outside to find a café where we could get a quick sandwich. Of course the concept of a quick sandwich is utter nonsense in Spain. We found nothing in existence except a local restaurant serving (at its own pace) the usual delicious tapas and wine. About four hours later we got back so that the smallies could do another round of VR shipwork. Ah, Sevilla – the home of long lunches!