Last minute shopping collapses Campo traffic

(Photo: illustration only) It's the same every year. Like almost everywhere, the days before the Three Kings festivities, when the Spanish give their presents, shopping malls and centres are one big traffic jam. Yesterday, the queues into Algeciras began in San Roque. First gear, second, and brake, all day long. There's no particular reason, except that the roads in the Campo de Gibraltar have become too small, added to which is last minute shopping for presents and, of course, the beginning of the annual sales. Access to the Bahía de Algeciras Shopping Mall, for instance, was collapsed from about noon, underground parking, almost impossible to find. The same was true at the Guadacorte and Palmones shopping centres, where work on the bridge across the A-7 didn't help at all despite police taking measures to ensure access to the Guadacorte centre didn't stop the flow of traffic, which it did anyway.