We know a really lovely place that could be the centre of a simple daytrip from the Lodge into Slovenia's East where a bottle Green river circles an island and you can rent a boat and go for a paddle or just jump in and swim!

Indeed you could even follow the beautiful Krka river from where it first pops out of a cave to start it's journey until it's very end where it joins Slovenia's longest river, the Sava at Brezice on the Slovenian border with Croatia, for a most unexpected, but typical epic Green adventure day out! 

The main focus of this fab day out is the unpronounceabubble town of Kostanjevica, which fortunately means "Chestnut" in English, so that is what we call this idyllic place, if it is ok with you!

What a lovely way to mix with locals and enjoy some time on the river..

Chestnut is also very handily placed on the way to Zagreb & Croatia so a fantastic stop off for Guests heading off to queue & waddle like penguins around a bunch of overhyped waterfalls over the border!!

If that indeed is your masterplan, then maybe once you have read ALL the amazing things you can do here in Green Slovenia along the KRKA river, be prepared to arrive late evening in Plitvice to join the crowds there..

Or, much more fun to do this trip as a circle from the Lodge, bombing off along the motorway towards Novo Mesto to join the Krka river and choose where you want to start following it.. then hug the river, meandering along beautiful country roads and doing lots of stop offs to the point where you decide to stop following it with an easy drive back to Lodge.. wow what a day!

SO now we will tell you about all the amazing secret Green places to visit along this short 95km long river, so you can choose where to stop and what to enjoy, starting with our fave secret place in the middle of this Green corridor, Chestnut Island..

a beautiful village sits on Kostanjevice island..

Kostanjevice (Chestnut) Island..

Chestnut village is perched upon a little island completely encircled by the bottle Green Krka river and accessed by two creaky wooden bridges across the water at either end of the island.

You could decide to drive onto the island (it is fun to do a little circuit around the village anyways) OR you could park at one end of the island where there is a Hawaiian bar, a little beach and canoe & bike rental..

There are a few restaurants & cafes on the island and a TIC, (tourist info centre), but the best way to get to see the island is to rent a canoe and paddle around it.. what about that folks!

So try to park near the bridge where you can see the pretty church, wooden boat jetty and the straw Hawaiian bar and real soon, you might soon be starting your negotiations with a 14 year old who doesnt speak much English to get your boat, depending on who is on duty.

Bikes and boats to rent at the Hawaiian bar on the bottle Green river.. this is Green Slovenia Baby..

Renting your boat or canoe for about an hour is enough to do a circuit of the island and you go down to the wooden jetty with rusty nails sticking out of the rotting wood to clamber into your ship and off you go!!

For those of you who like camping, play Sunday morning football or those lucky enough to have grown up in the 70's and 80's you will feel refreshingly at home with the almost complete lack of Health & Safety on offer here, no changing facilties and manky portable toilets.. so just change into your swimming stuff in the car and enjoy the fun of it all.

Just take a bit of extra care, especially if you have kids on board and once you get in the boat and paddle off, the real magic starts.

Whoever wrote that song about messing about on the water got it right.. Time stops as you begin your circle and wobble off around this enchanting island with weeping willows drinking the water, the odd swimmer's head bobbing up and some really idyllic houses and countryside to admire on and off the island.

How cool is this local parking..

Halfway round you will get to the other bridge on the other side of the island and soon after with a bit more waving at locals and a lot more smiling, you will reach the main flow of the river where the Krka heads off towards Brezice and you stay left to join the home straight and return under that first bridge to the jetty.

This is where most people swim and kamikaze teenagers jump off the bridge, there is also a little beach on the other side of the bridge if you want. 

Of course, it is obligatory to jump in the river afterwards and have a swim and you will be surprised how refreshing the water can be on a hot summer's day!

We were here in HIGH summer as part of a fun day off from Lodge duties and we are quite sure we were the ONLY foreign people here by the boats, it was an absolute joy to to be immersed with local people having fun on the water..

Friendly locals, bang in the middle of summer we were the only foreigners here.. maybe the rest were at Lake Bled..

So if you foolishly pay any attention to all that hubba bubba from the 2 day visitors to Green Slovenia who complain lake Bled was a bit busy in the middle of the summer, then Chestnut Island and the hundreds of other sensational SECRET PLACES TO VISIT like this are quietly waiting for your visit and if you come to a stunning secret place like this outside the school hols and during a week day, you will also wonder where on earth are the locals, let alone the tourists!!

You could easily spend the WHOLE day within a duck's quack of this island, maybe with a bit of a hike and we also recommend a fantastic art gallery, the biggest in Slovenia, housed in a huge old monastery just down the road from the island called very unhelpfully, Galerija Bozidar Jakac Kostanjevica na Krki, but stick it in googlemaps and you will find it..

It's big and pink, displaying the paintings, sketches and sculptures of several very talented Slovenian masters, so if you are into art, give yourself enough time to see it all. But if you might like just exploring the fantastic building and surroundings, with a smaller interest in art you will still need at least an hour. 

Reaching the second bridge signals half way around the island..

You also need to know in advance that outside the monastery, the grounds are green and huge with dozens & dozens of large and often crazy wooden sculptures littering the landscape and you could have a really nice pick nick here with a wander around all these artworks.

It seems each year there is a sculptures festival here and even more mysterious new wooden masterpieces appear!        

We saw some huge carved wooden space invaders off in the distance, some bread rolls on a stick and there are so many other different wooden creations here, we really have never seen anything like it.. all this in a very beautiful setting.

Fantastic way to enjoy and appreciate the stunning views as you paddle around the island..

Cvicek Wine Region..

Another thing you need to know about this cracking little mini region along the Krka river is that there are a lot of other monasteries here where monks still make wine and beer and it is also the centre of one of Slovenia's 7 wine regions, being home to the mysterious & unique Cvicek wine.

Some people love Cvicek and some people do not, but every year the formula changes for the exact mix of local grapes used to make this unique Rose like wine, that you really should try and see if you are a fan or not.

There are other indigenous wines here in any case like Blue Frankinja, so wine can also play a part in your adventures here.. at least try a glass at the Hawaiian bar or with yout local meal! 

Plenty of local vineyards and also this Cvicek Wine Fountain at the nearby village of Smarjeske Toplice..

So now with your permission we will row away from all things around the Chestnut island and go back to the very start of the Krka river at the surprisingly named village of Krka and explain how to make your way along to the very end of one of Slovenia's most beautiful rivers at Brezice..

Izvir Krka, (the Source of the Krka)..

Green Slovenia has a huge amount of rivers and one brown info sign we strongly recommend you look out for and will see a lot if you do look is IZVIR, which means the "Source" or "Spring" of a river.

The Krka river first pops out of two sources.. a cave, (that you could also go inside with a phone call to the local cave association) and a small rocky cliff face where you can see the water bubbling out and starting it's 95km journey.

Find the village of KRKA and do not just blindly type Krka into your phone as you might end up in Croatia, so this Krka is near the village of Gabrovcec and a little further downriver the first small town is called Zuzemberk..

Then find the signs for Izvir and you will literally rock up at the start of this fab river..

Leaving the second bridge and this end of the island has the bulk of the village..

Zuzemberk (Cucumber) Castle..

Zuzemberk sounds a bit like "cucumber" in English, so that is what we call it and this cute little village could also be the perfect spot to start hugging and following the Krka river with the fantastic castle towering above the river..

So Cucumber castle, (Zuzemberg) as we call it, is one of the best castles in Green Slovenia that you never heard about, (way much more fun than Ljubblyjana castle, by the way)!

With absolutely no people around, but beautifully restored by the locals and perfect for kids or big kids to charge around and explore every element of a huge, grand medieval castle in perfect condition, with a lovely little cafe outside for some refreshments..

You read it here first, so if you are gonna go visit, make sure you have enough time..

The Krka is one of many rivers you can swim in Green Slovenia.. we jumped in after our rowing..

Novo Mesto..

Novo Mesto means "new town", which is not so helpful as Novo Mesto is one of the oldest towns in Slovenia!

It is the main towns along the motorway between Ljubbljana and Zagreb and on the Krka river, but on this particular adventure it might be just where you get off the motorway to join the local roads and the river Krka..

The sprawling new town here is dominated by a Renault factory and we visited the small old town a few years ago, finding a lovely little tea house next to the old bridge overlooking the river, but then having to leg it for lack of time. 

a little beach on the other side of the bridge..

We generally think the unique magic of Green Slovenia is to be found OUTSIDE the towns and few cities and we will write a new blog on that very subject some time soon to tell you which towns we do reckon are worth your time. (Deffo do not make the mistake of touring Slovenia by size of town)..

But actually, we have heard a few good things about Novo Mesto old town, which is why we are mentioning it here in this article for the Krka river and why we will give it a second chance and go revisit it soon..

Otocek Castle..

One place you MUST certainly see on this Green adventure and take a piccy at the very least is a very cool castle called Otocek, now converted into a hotel, that sits on another island on this same bottle green river not far from Chestnut island, between Novo Mesto and Kostanjevica..

Can you believe it, two river islands for the price of one in a country where you might not have even realised has some very beautiful islands indeed! Actually, we have found some other islands in all different shapes and sizes here, so we did another article on it just for fun called.. wait for it.. Islands..

Otocek castle sits snuggly on it's smaller island in the middle of the river with swans gliding around and another wonky wooden bridge providing access for the hotel guests.

Why not pop into Otocek castle for a coffee and cake, but deffo stop off to marvel at this view..

But DO NOT BE SHY to go inside and have a coffee and a cake and a little poke around in this castle, despite it looking really exclusive and posh, cos Slovenia is a country where everyone is the same class and so the staff will not look down their noses at you if you do venture in and ask for a coffee.. This is refreshing indeed.

And the castle cakes are REALLY good here too, so why not give it a go!

Indeed if you intend to continue on to Chestnut Island from Otocek, we strongly recommend you DO drive across the wonky bridge past the castle to the other side of the river, follow a really narrow riverside road and turn up a forest road past the golf club to rejoin the country road that will go the few more kms to Kostanjevice..

This little route is fiddly, but very beautiful indeed! 

Kostanjevice na Krku (to give Chestnut Island it's full name)..

Ok, so we already told you all about Kostanjevica na Krku island above, but just putting it in here again to show you where it comes positionally along the Krka river and to reaffirm that without doubt, it is our fave place along this river!

the pink Tower of Hearts dominates the skyline in Brezice..

Brezice..the end of the river and this particular Green Adventure..

To come home at the end of the day it makes sense to join the motorway and if you want to follow the river right to it's end then go to the kooky little border town of Brezice.

This is one of our fave little towns in Slovenia for a few reasons we will tell you about next.

But first only hardened river spotters will be determined enough or even be bothered to find the confluence where the river Krka finally meets it's end and becomes part of the river Sava, just before Brezice.

Maybe there is a spot where you can park up nicely and stand by the river to watch it flow into the Sava with the dignity this amazing feature of nature deserves, but all we could find was a petrol station next to a busy road, nevertheless we parked up at Catez ob Savi, crossed that busy road and walked along the long road bridge that crosses the much larger river Sava, with lorries whistling by enough to blow your wig off.. But we got the very picture you can see below of the mighty river Krka, flowing into the Sava.. (hope you enjoy it)..

But seriously, if you do such an epic pilgrimage along the Krka river, then surely we deserve a bit more than having to shuffle along a busy road bridge to see the end of the river.. Green Slovenia is the greenest country in Europe, but sometimes the locals are oblivious to the beauty they are lucky enough to be custodians of for the rest of the world.. so pretty please, can we at least have some kinda sign, path and little viewing platform with a pot plant and if there is, then sorry, but we couldn't find it!!! 

the Krka river on the left finally flows into the Sava river on the right..

Ok back to lovely Brezice, which has so many little unexpected cool things to do and see in an otherwise quite ordinary looking town that we will soon do a Secret Place to Visit article about it AND it will be included in the dozen or so cool towns & villages that actuallyARE worth your visit in Green Slovenia in the blog we will do on that very subject..

So in Brezice there is the fantastic Pink Tower of Hearts, one of the best towers in Slovenia.. an ex water tower with a story.. a fab museum inside a castle with a huge amount of frescoes on the walls.. a long kooky high street with a stunning Michelin restaurant at the end of it called Debeluh, (the fat man) and we could not think of a better venue to complete this day's adventure than to have a stunning meal there and then hit the empty motorway home for a retrun to Lodge base camp.. Job done!

Exquisite decor, food and service at Debeluhs in Brezice..

Wow, what a day and another example of a completely unexpected Green adventure you might never have realised you could have in Green Slovenia!

But you sure can and now you know about this little snippet hidden away on the map..

There are several islands in Green Slovenia to find and enjoy..

Directions..

We do not usually give specific directions, but for this particular adventure it is worth checking a map to get your logisitics right before hand, despite the fact you are just following a river..

Everyone is different and it really is possible to visit ALL of the amazing places we mentioned here in a fab daytrip along the Krka river OR just choose the ones that take your fancy and spend more time in those..

But THE TWO KEYS to this Green adventure are the MOTORWAY, cos it allows you to whizz anywhere along the river and do the "there & back" from the Lodge AND the RIVER, cos that is where all the Green action is..

So you can use the A2 motorway from Ljubljana to Zagreb to access your starting point on the river AND to zoom back.. It is fast and quite pretty scenery for a motorway, but once you do join the river & the country roads, your journey slows down and the scenery gets 5 or 6 times more amazing, ok 7 or 8!

You could use the motorway from the Lodge direction Novo Mesto and Zagreb and hop off at any of the locations mentioned above in this article to join the river where you decide to start your adventures, then just jump back on the motorway to come home..

Distances are actually quite longish, but melt into the travel time, which is very short indeed... the end of the river at Brezice is only 1 hour 40 mins to the Lodge, Novo Mesto is 1 hour 25 mins, Zuzemberk castle 1 hour 25 mins and the start of the river at Krka village is about an hour..

Places to moor and pop uo for an ice cream on the island..

There is also a possible route completely avoiding any motorway from the Lodge to go cross country via Cerknica, Ribnica, maybe via Kocevje and then to Zuzemberk to join the river. But you know the rule.. it takes longer, but is infinetely more beautiful..

This could be both ways or just one way either there or back and the scenery is absolutely stunning, with zero traffic and picturesque little villages.

It also opens up the possibility of visiting the Cerknica Disappearing Lake, the biggest in Europe and other Green delights, but at the risk of overwhelming you, we will leave it there in the knowledge that there really is a whole host of stuff to do and see here in the Greenest small country in Europe!

Have a paddletastic day by the river..