From Toronto its on to Ottawa, or more specifically Kanata, the high tech town to the west of Canada’s capital city.

Unlike in the USA, people in Canada seem to walk around a lot more (we enjoyed a brisk walk to Kanata’s “Local Heroes” bar and grill; it was -16C outside).

Whilst it may seem that Canadians are obviously keen on health and fitness as well as recycling there may be a simpler reason for their choice of transportation:

So how nice would it be in this weather to find a Starbucks for a nice hot cup of coffee? Well its not as easy as you might think. Whilst Starbucks in the USA seem to locate their stores a few feet apart there aren’t nearly as visible across the border. In fact whilst there are (subject to pending closures due to the recession) about 11,000 Starbucks in the USA there are only about 500 in Canada.

So what do the Canucks do for their caffeine fix? That’s where ex-Hockey star Tim Horton comes in. He opened a coffee-and-donut shop back in 1964 in Ontario and it has since expanded to account for over 60% of the Canadian coffee market (and Starbucks is second but a long way back at 7%).

There are about 2,800 Tim Horton’s in Canada and 400 or so in the USA. Amazingly there’s also a Tim Horton’s in Afghanistan. This (I’m reliably informed by my local correspondent, otherwise known as the man sitting next to me in the bar last night) is there to keep the Canadian troops stationed there happy. Since its so risky the staff are well paid to go there.

After Kanata its time to go back home to Houston, via Toronto. Unfortunately this doesn’t go to plan.

When travelling from Canada into the USA you actually have to go through US customs and immigration in Canada (This I suppose avoids the US customs having to have checkpoints at all the US airports that Canadian airports link to and also allows the airlines to fly into domestic terminals rather than international ones). Once you go through customs you are technically in the USA (even though you are still in Canada).

So the idea was:

Get off flight from Ottawa to Toronto

Collect bag in a special baggage collection area (a kind of no-man’s land between Canada and the USA)

Go through US customs and immigration checkpoint

Board flight from Toronto (the US part) to Houston

This idea would have worked fine had Air Canada checked my bag through to Houston. Unfortunately after waiting for it in “no-man’s land” I was told it wasn’t there and should go and collect it from the domestic baggage collection area.

OK, just leave no-man’s land...errr....no, can’t leave the way I came in, security won’t let me...they say I have to go through US customs and immigration...go there, and get turned away...back into no-man’s land and finally get routed to Canadian customs and immigration...so despite having come from Canada I have to fill a customs form in and go through Canadian immigration (I did get a stamp in the passport though!)...now I can get to the domestic baggage collection (after a brief attempt to turn me back by security there)...and there is my bag (with a few others that presumably suffered the same fate)...unfortunately now its too late to catch the flight to Houston...and of course there’s no flights until tomorrow....

Thankfully a helpful Air Canada ticket representative sorts me out with a new flight and a hotel room for free. So not quite the same as getting home but its better than being stuck in no-man’s land...