The vacation ritual my mom taught me that everyone should do

"Been there, climbed that" was my family's tagline while living in Germany.

My dad's job took us to the land of beer and pretzels during my last six months of middle school and my first two years of high school.

During those 2 1/2 years, my mom took on the role of travel agent. Every weekend we ventured to a different German village; every school vacation we traveled to a new country.

One constant: If there was a church — or any tall structure with stairs — we climbed to the top.

I may have complained a lot then ("Another cobblestone street? ANOTHER church to climb?"), but today I'm forever grateful that my mom dragged us up, because just look at all the incredible memories we made ...

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Europe is full of incredible buildings and churches, all of which have rewarding views and seemingly endless stairs. This is the Strasbourg Cathedral de Notre-Dame in Strasbourg, France.

The 332-step climb culminates with unparalleled views of the city and beyond. Just another mini-workout sneaked into our vacation by my active mother.

My mom rarely researched which cities had churches to climb; we stumbled upon them as we explored. During our cruise around the Greek islands, we stopped in Split, Croatia, and saw the Cathedral of Saint Domnius standing tall.

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