Note: When we booked our accommodations in Bled, our hosts sent us a link to apply for the Julian Alps Card: Bled. In theory you are supposed to be able to get the card if you stay in Bled for 3 or more nights, but we only stayed two and got the card anyway, so who knows! I put in our housing reservations about a week out and the day before our stay, an email showed up with a QR code. Lots of ‘benefits’ are listed on the website but we only used it for the Mostnica Gorge, which saved us 4€ per person.

Google was predicting rain, but we were met with a day full of sunshine! We decided to explore the Lake Bohinj area, starting with Mostnica Gorge. Our drive through Stara Fužina was a good start to the morning.

There is a large parking area just before you hit the Valley of the Seven Lakes toll gate (GPS coordinates for the curious). It’s 3€ per hour and cash only but the machine gave change, thankfully. We started the hike on the left shore and came back on the right. The water was very clear, with lots of white stones and many cascades, plus autumn crocus and cyclamen in bloom. Altogether we spent just under two hours as we decided to skip the additional 2 hour RT walk to the waterfall at the end of the trail.

From here we drove to downtown Bohinj and wow, was it busy. We wound up parking in the lot north of town, before the bridge, but could have parked closer as there were multiple lots in town as well. 2,60€/hr and this machine accepted card payment (I think the Easypass app was accepted in town lots). We started with views of the lake, then walked back over the bridge past the Church of St. John the Baptist (at 3,50€ entry we skipped going inside). On our way out, Eric got a passion fruit gelato – very nice, with chunks of real fruit.

We enjoyed the quick day-trip from Lake Bled, but it really felt like the town was trying to squeeze euros out of us.