Confirmed - Komarno in Slovakia is nicer than its namesake in Hungary

After our abortive attempt to visit this split town on our mammoth bike ride, Katy and I were able to revisit the north western part of the country and took the opportunity to cross in Slovakia, as you and can confirm that Komarno (north) is more interesting than Komarno (south) - although it is all relative.

The town has that very typical confused frontier edge to it with signs in both Hungarian and Slovak - not a surprise as it was Hungarian until 1920 but there have been some major efforts to make it into a Slovakian town since then - street names are more slovak than hungarian but then there is a Hungarian language university in the town, next to the very ramshackle old fort on the outskirts so it is all rather confusing.

The fort and the town were one of the focal points of the 1848-9 War of Independence against the Austrians and it was one of the last bastions of resistance to fall to the victorious Austrians at the end of the war - in retaliation, the Austrians pretty much destroyed the majority of the town.

Following the 1938 invasion of Czechslovakia, the town was part of the land passed back to Hungary as a reward for their support for the Germans, and then switched hands again after the defeat of the Axis in 1945 - all very confusing.

Now it has a rather industrial feel to it as a result of the ship building yards on the banks of the river, although they looked like they have not had much call for building for a good while.