but there may be a few experts out there with time in their hands.
Thanks in advance.
Hi,
@henrythedog, I meet at least one of your two criteria, so I started to give it a go.
But I only got as far as Portomarín, and you already have many other great suggestions. It’s not often that I comment on the Camino Francés, because I haven’t walked it in many years, but it got me thinking about my stay in Casa Morgade, about 11 or 12 km outside Sarria.
Beautiful environs, family run business. I first stayed there in 2001, I believe, when it offered one room with six beds to pilgrims. The dueña cooked a very good meal and sat with the four of us as we ate. She told her story, how a young city girl from Bilbao had fallen in love with a country farmer in Galicia. She opened this little place as an add-on to their primary farm operations. Fast forward nearly 20 years, and the family business is still going strong. They have added a proper restaurant in addition to their little café, and have a number of hotel rooms in the old stone building. The now grandmother is still involved in daily operations, surrounded by family members of the next two generations. I passed through there a few years ago after walking the Camino Olvidado to Ponferrada, and to this day I regret not stopping to say hi. It was lunchtime, there were crowds, and I just kept going. Bad decision.
About a year ago, there was a discussion about the Casa Morgade on this thread,
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/snow-at-o’cebreiro-today.65295/#post-799831,
where another forum member was raving about Casa Morgade. On a whim, I sent off an email message to their website, retelling my experience and pointing out that the same caring attitude was still shining through loud and clear in their family operation 20 yers later. Here is the response I received (with my translation below)
Hola,Laurie .
Cuanto se agradecen esas palabras tan bonitas ,hacia nuestro negocio ,un
pequeño negocio familiar que fue creciendo poco a poco ,y que a pesar de
pasar los años lo único que hacemos es abrir las puertas de nuestra
casa a los caminantes con nuestro mas humilde trabajo .
Y palabras como estas, nos emocionan y ayundan a seguir en ese camino.
Estas palabras las recordaremos siempre .Gracias ..gracias ,gracias
Si alguna vez mas decide hacer el camino....le agradecería que se diera
conocer, .
Nuevamente le agradezco esas palabras tan bonitas.
Un saludo de parte de todo el equipo de Casa Morgade
Hi, Laurie, We really appreciate these beautiful words about our business, a small family business that grew little by little. And over the years, the only thing we do is open the doors of our house to the peregrinos, and offer them our more humble work (I think here what he means is that the peregrinos do all the hard work, they just do the easy bits).
And words like this affect us and help us to continue. We will remember these words always. Thanks, thanks, thanks. If you decide to walk the camino again, we would appreciate it if you would say hi. Again, thank you for those nice words.
Greetings from the entire team of Casa Morgade.
I can guarantee that you will not regret it if you spend the night here. The house is in a rural setting, lots of calm and quiet and nice places to stroll around. I hope to hear from post-covid pilgrims that the Casa Morgade has survived and is once again providing hospitality to pilgrims.