Bidding Adieu to Summer at Kea, the Greek Nantucket

Three hours into my self-guided tour around Kea, the teardrop-shaped Greek island that few people outside of Greece seem to have heard of, things were not going well at all. I figured that shunting my own vehicle onto the ferry for the 16-mile ride from the mainland port Lavrio would help steer me to the best spots on the island in a necessarily short period of time. That cars are forbidden in the hilltop village of Ioulis, where I was to stay, was the first indication of a miscalculation. Even small suitcases can begin to feel like anvils when you have to cart them across cobblestone lanes under a searing, late summer sun.