Vis - Historic, strategic and so, so beautiful

What to do with two days. One night on Vis, another on Pakleni Otoci then back to Trogir...

Wendy and Sally sensibly decided since we'd been on the move everyday since leaving Slano we should just get to Vis and chill.

Two main harbours on Vis. There is Vis bay, with the town of Vis at one end of the bay and Kut at the other. This is the food and wine town founded in 800BC. Then on the other side of the island is Komiza, the 'young' city founded in the 11th century and is where the fish come from.

Yachts were streaming toward the Vis bay from all directions and we knew that wall moorings are tight. I chucked on another 500 revs and we managed to get ahead of the main bunch. The Vis end is subject to ferry wash so we decided to try Kut, waited for one boat to dock and we were next in.


What an enchanting little hamlet.... but for that bell tower. One bong for each quarter of an hour. So on the hour you get four bongs, then one bong for each hour. It begins at 5:00am but the 5:00am chime then goes into a two minute bing session just to ensure that everybody is awake.

I'd like a word with the priest!

The  town of Vis is a wonderful 3km flat bike ride away through winding narrow streets devoid of cars punctuated by bars overhanging the water and restaurants inviting you in with their charm.

The island of Vis is the most strategic in the Adriatic. As the saying goes.. "whomever owns Vis owns the Adriatic".

It is because of where it sits, slightly proud of the island chains of Croatia, it is easy to defend and is the only island with abundant natural spring water. For those reasons it is bristling with military relics mainly dating back to the second world war and then the cold war of communist Yugoslavia.

I took the kids on the 'military tour' which started at the submarine silo which we visited by boat a few days later. Big enough to accommodate three Yugoslavian subs or a couple of warships and still in amazing condition.







Then on to the gun placements. Tunnels everywhere, cannon bunkers and anti aircraft pods surrounded by machine gun nests... it must have been the most awful time to be alive.












When the Russians owned Croatia, they could not take Vis. When the Germans owned Croatia, they too failed and when the war of independence from Yugoslavia ended, Vis was the last place in Croatia to be vacated by Yugoslavian troops. It is now the least militaristic and most laid back place we have visited and the locals are very keen to keep it that way.





This structure sits above the big gun placements and is designed to disperse the sound of the blast to make it difficult to accurately detect its position on sonar.

Then of course there was the wine tour. Three wineries, all so different but a very enjoyable afternoon and evening. Winery one, with a view to rival Montenegro, the hostess to rival Princess Grace of Monaco and a tasting plate to match.

The wine? Drinkable.

Winery two. A little more viticulture a little less laid on but run by a passionate and realistic winemaker with a great sense of humour.

Winery three made good use of the military tunnels, on a much larger scale than one and two but by the time we got there they had had enough of these pesky tourists... The wine was great but it was 8:30 at night and we just went with the flow.

There is now no way we will get anywhere near consuming the wine we have on the boat. Just hoping it ages well and doesn't freeze during the European winter!

One more day of frivolity with the Frasers and it was time to head back too Trigor.... but wait....

There is a 5:30am ferry from Vis to Split. Then Greg discovered a 7:30 fast Cat to Split and magnanimously they took that saving us the 4 hour schlep and allowing us to remain on what is our favourite island in Croatia thus far.












Bye bye Greg and Wendy. Always way too much fun. Thanks so much for coming and we'll see you in Canada in December if your systems can handle it??