So, SB and I aren’t big souvenir collectors.  We tend to enjoy writing travel diaries (like this one!) and taking pictures over buying items that will remind us of a place.  That is, unless we find EXACTLY the right item.

So, we have our souvenir from our trip to Spain.  It’s a sentoku knife of made of Damascus steel.  (A sentoku knife is a Japanese chef’s knife — almost the same as a normal chef’s knife, but with a slightly different shape that we’re geeky enough to prefer.)  We bought it on our trip to Toledo on Saturday.

You might want to click the picture to really see the wavy patterns in the steel.

Damascus steel cooking knife from Toledo

Toledo is THE place for Damascus steel.  Toledo is filled with shops selling all variety of Toledo steel: fancy tableware, hunting knives, full plate armor, decorative artwork, you name it.  And let’s not forget swords — replica swords from all nationalities and time periods.  In fact, many of the ornamental swords for our armed forces come from there.

And for the more media-minded, movie prop reproductions like these from The Lord of the Rings.

Reproduction helmet and gauntlet of Sauron

But the cool thing about a chef’s knife is that Terran and I cook like crazy people.  We’ve been whining about the lack of a good cooking knife in our apartment since we got here.  This is something that is special to the area, pretty, and we’ll use it constantly, even when we get home.  That’s an exciting kind of souvenir, something that kind remind you of a cool place that you will use almost every day.