Last day in Rovaniemi, Rocktaurant and driving in the rain

Thursday came and that was the day our time in the cottage ended. So it was time for tidying up the place and leave before 12.00. Last looks around and after the phone call to the owner, we drove away. And again: Reindeer beside the road, we were lucky to notice it before anything dangerous happened.

A small visit to Ounasvaara sleigh ride was mandatory, our children were promised one ride. Then we bought the last souveniers from the Lordi´s Square. And went to eat before a long drive to Isokyrö.




The Rocktaurant. Lordi´s place to eat. Horror galleries and food, valuable music artifacts and Eighties hardrock. All there. The rest of our family ordered food, I did it quickly, perhaps it was kebab or something. They waited but I wandered all around the restaurant.


It´s not very easy to describe the place. If you don´t like -80's music and horror movies from the same time, you don't understand the concept of Rocktaurant, or even the whole Lordi phenomenon. Some examples what was in there:

• Billy Gibbons guitar from the first ZZ Top album


• Original sketches and drawings of Mr Lordi, when he started to create the monsters


• The wings from Hard Rock Hallelujah Eurovision victory


• Cover artworks of Lordi albums


• Much of Kiss merchandise


• Tuomas Holopainen´s hat and synthesizer


• Ozzy Osbourne´s, U.D.O's, Twisted Sisters etc drumsticks and much more music equipment


• Original masks of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface and Freddy Krueger


• Paintings, creatures, plastic dummies, skeletons, -80's jukebox, chains

If you are visiting Rovaniemi, don't miss this place. Even if you hate horror movies, visit this restaurant because it´s simply so original that you don´t see the same kind of place anywhere in the world. The menu is basic but good (no horror stuff there). I´ll add some pictures from there when back home.

Then started the loooong drive back home. Before Oulu traffic was exhausting. Imagine driving behind three truck tens of kilometres, because there´s no opportunities to overtake. Traffic was dense, why was everyone driving with us? Well, we were on holiday and not in a hurry.

We drove to Oulu marketplace, had a pause of 30min, attended some kind of food festival. Our youngest daughter wanted to have a picture of her and the statue of Market Police. She has read it from the schoolbook in spring and it was very important for her to see the Oulu landmark.

Then there was a coastal drive to Isokyrö. This time there was not so much traffic, but heavy rain. It rained. It rained hard about 100 kilometres. We took it easy and finally came to Isokyrö vicarage to my parent´s place.

The Rovaniemi trip was over. Time for deeper thoughts was in the future.