The tomb of the unknown soldier is guarded by Evzones， the elite soldiers who also guard the Palace and are chosen for their height and strength. They are like the guards at Buckingham Palace with the big furryfurry adj.毛皮的， 盖着毛皮的， 有锅垢的， 有舌苔的 hats and are treated the same way by tourists who come to take their pictures and see if they blink. Every so often they do a little march and dance to break the monotonymonotony n.单音， 单调， 千篇一律 of standing still all day and they occasionally do this little kick step with their sarouchi shoes with the pompoms. The pleated skirt， the foustanela， was worn by the Greek fighters of the 1821 revolution and today it serves as the official uniform of the Evzones. It was established by Otto as the formal court dress in the middle of the 19th century. At 6pm you can see the changing of the guard while dodging pigeonspigeon n.鸽子. If you have children they will probably enjoy feeding them with the nuts that are sold there. On Sunday at 11 there is a big ceremony for the changing of the guard with a marching bands and a whole troop of evzonesevzone n.希腊精锐部队的步兵(士兵).
To the left of the square is the Grande Bretagne a hotel as historically significant as it is elegant and a great place to go in for a coffee in the beautiful lobby or the bar. It is considered the best place to stay in Athens and has been since it was built in 1862 to accommodate Heads of State， for which purpose it is still used. It is one of the most well known hotels in the world. In the second world war it was requisitionedrequisition n.正式请求， 申请， 需要， 命令， 征用， 通知单 vt.征用， 要求 for the military for its headquarters. The guests were given an hour to leave. Then it was the headquarters of the Wermacht during the Nazi occupation. Hitler， Goering， Himmler and Rommel all stayed here. When the civil war began it became headquarters for the British Expeditionary force and machine guns and sandbags guarded the lobby. Later that month a plot to assassinateassassinate vt.暗杀， 行刺 Churchill was discovered when police found one ton of dynamitedynamite n.炸药， 〈俚〉 能产生不凡效果的人或物 vt.炸毁， 使失败 in the sewers directly under the door.
At the bottom of Syntagma is the McDonalds which replaced the popular Papaspyros. The cafe was the meeting point for travelers to Greece going east and west， since it was downstairs from American express where everyone got their mail and cashed their travelers checks in the sixties and seventies. It is also the beginning of Ermou Street， closed to auto traffic and Athen，s main shopping district which leads down to the Flea market at Monastiriki. An important thing to remember， just like in America when you are on the road and you want to stop to use a clean bathroom， the first place you think of is McDonalds， the same goes for Greece. But if it is too crowded you can use this contraptioncontraption n.精巧的设计， 装置 on the right， one of the new toilittubes that are being placed around Athens. The only problem is there are other tubes that look almost exactly the same that do not have toilets in them. So before you heave a sigh of relief in an emergencyemergency n.紧急情况， 突然事件， 非常时刻， 紧急事件 situation， make sure the tube you are using has a door.
Syntagma is on the border of the Plaka. Besides the Grande Bretagne there are two other major hotels on the square. The Athens Plaza and the King George. Within a block or two are the Astor， Amazon， Athens Central and the Electra Palace.