A busy shopping centre
It was a Sunday, and we didn't expect to find anything open. So we were surprised by the bustle of the San Fernando Plaza shopping centre. We parked in front, although we could have found parking inside, and went in to browse for a bit. Almost everything was closed except a few bars and restaurants, but we walked around window shopping (Sunday's always the best day to do that ... you know that you can't succumb to the temptation to buy something!).
This is not a shopping centre in the strict sense of the world; San Fernando already has Bahia Sur, a gigantic centre said to be the largest in Andalucia. Instead, this is a leisure centre, with cafes, cinemas, gym, nightlife, pubs, discos, nightclubs, fast food restaurants, mini casino, arcade room, etc.. As well as candy shops, dry-cleaning, telephones, real estate, bank, supermarket, etc.. It's an interesting, unusual idea that has proved a success. As the crisis is being felt in traditional shopping centres, instead what we have here is attempting to build an economy based on entertainment.
Now it covers an area of about 20,000 square meters on three floors and a basement, with entrances at all four corners. It opened in 2003 and really its leisure center change occurred in 2008. The shops are open from 9 am to 10 pm, cafes from 8 to midnight, the restaurants until one in the morning. It has a multiplex with eight screens, Abaco. And in front of the San Fernando Plaza is a huge park, the usual meeting place for the local youth, a perfect complement to the Leisure Centre.
