Like the OP, I live and ride in North America.

When you take a long trip here you can easily skip lots of stuff. Maybe you've seen it before--cities, national parks, local attractions you've been visiting since you were a little kid. Or maybe it merely greatly resembles stuff you've seen before---there are local variations, but vast swathes of North America were settled and developed within the same time frame (Native Americans aside), and never featured the drastically different arrays of little kingdoms and civilizations and contrasting cultures so common throughout Europe. Or maybe you skip it because it's easy enough to come back and catch it next year, or the year after. There's not even a lot you need to experience culturally, since basically we're fairly similar no matter where you go (again allowing for some exceptions). So if you're headed for Alaska you get on the road early and ride like crazy--if you want--and in a week you're there.

Europe's not like that, thank god. In many cases the roads are actually better, so if what you want is to skip everything worthwhile and make time to some distant spot on the map, you can certainly do so. But once you get off the main highways and slow down a bit you realize how rich and varied everything is--culturally, linguistically, gastronomically, architecturally, and however else you can name. Plus there's some amazing riding on the back roads, whatever your riding style. As indicated above, if you're staying on the main roads you'll make good time, but basically you might as well stay home.

You've got three weeks, maybe four. That's a good amount of time to loop up to Nordkapp if it's summertime: you'll catch spectacular scenery, get some glimpses of the Soviet days and the current Russia, pass through six or eight main language zones (and lots of minor ones, each representing a thousand years of proud history). Or you could head south through parts of Eastern Europe into Turkey--another fascinating trip with wonderful riding, as long as you recognize you'll run out of time if you try to include--as everyone should--more than a quick taste of Turkey. Or do an Adriatic/Balkan loop, with bits of Italy, Greece, Albania and the former Yugoslavia. Or the Alps, France and Spain. Or....

The point is that any of these will fill twice the amount of time you've got without ever getting boring. Your trip doesn't become realistic just because you decided to give up on Morocco. The question is, will you find this out in advance and adjust your plans, or will you learn it on the ground and eat crow? Me, I aimed for a generous mix of both....and ended up spending 8 months on the trip you describe doing in 3-4 weeks. FWIW, I covered a lot of ground in a hurry and still missed vast areas. You'll see.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Edit to add: Oh yeh, insurance. Buy the best green card coverage you find, then purchase at borders when necessary. It's not a big deal, although certain countries (Morocco, Serbia, to a lesser extent Macedonia) are foolishly expensive. Some countries will make you pay at one border, not at another (Croatia); some will make you promise to purchase insurance at first opportunity but will make it impossible when the time comes (Ukraine and Albania, in my experience). Others charge very nominal amounts, which themselves turn out to be negotiable (Moldova, Turkey). It's all ok. Don't fall into the trap of spending a lot of time trying to work the angles in advance: for the most part it's all hassle-free. If you had a year to spend on your trip that would alter the balance, but with a month you want to spend a bit extra and see as much as possible.

Nice summary there Mark with lots of food for thought.

Regarding Croatia; breaking news!! That country has just signed up for the EU, so green card cover for the EU should now cover riding there also.

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Dave

Good news gentleman - flight to Valencia for May 17th is booked and IMTBike will have a BMW there waiting for me. Here is hoping to a warm May in the Alps and Romania

I did not exhaust every possibility of buying a bike myself, but all the ones I looked at were not stress/cost efficient. If I bought a bike, various restrictions on where I could take it arose (i.e. western nations have varying restrictions insurance wise of bringing bikes into Eastern Europe). In addition, securing insurance beyond minimum liability is difficult. To guarantee it for all nations I might visit was next to impossible. I couldn't take a 5-7k Euro risk if the bike was stolen in Serbia etc. It would have been a huge roll of the dice for minimal savings vs renting a bike, despite how expensive it is.