I woke with the early symptoms of a cold this morning so somewhat to Nina's displeasure decided to spend that day in bed in the hope of accelerating its progress. I guess this is the price of catching public transport in recent days where one is exposed to people coughing and spluttering. Regardless of my absence Nina seemed to have a good day exploring the city and came home with lots of information about this picturesque World heritage city that was once the capital of Spain.

Toledo has long been famous for the steel that was made there and hence was a major center for the making of bladed weapons since ancient times. According to Wikipedia the Roman Legions used steel from Toledo for their swords from around 500BC. It seems that the secret to Toledo steel was that it was a true steel alloy whereas competing products of the period had trace elements added after smelting by various folding and hammering techniques.

According to a number of sources the phrase Holy Toledo more than likely was brought to America by Sephardic Jews who eventually emigrated to America, to them Toledo was the holiest Jewish city in Europe.