And yet somehow, it's deemed ok for my parents to be providing childcare (on days they are not working) to other members of my family who also work in the NHS, meaning that they are already mixing with other households, like hundreds of grandparents across the country. Incidentally - they're not front-line workers, so there is no patient contact involved, but that's besides the point.

I get all of the points made and will probably need to postpone this trip, or better still, just forget it completely and have my parents visit me, where things are much easier. Germany is no longer imposing any quarantine requirement at all on arrivals from the UK, which is bizarre when the restrictions imposed the other way are so severe. It seems it wouldn't be worth the anxiety the trip would now cause .And yet again the people who actually bother to go out of their way to seek advice on these things end up punished.

I sense your argument might not be with the people here, who are merely trying to help you with practical advice, but with the UK government (and the Scottish administration under devolved powers) ;). None of us are responsible for what might appear to be conflicting and illogical policies!

FWIW, I think you're approaching this sensibly and I hope I'd do the same. I would personally wait for what comes out of today's announcement because it might well be that it makes the situation an awful lot better for you.

Failing that, every indication is that in 3-6 weeks after the start date the quarantine will be dropped for arrivals from most countries. I'd certainly expect Germany to be amongst them. That leaves you free to decide which of Germany and Scotland is going to allow you the greatest amount of freedom, as you identify.

No, I definitely understand that people are just trying to help, but they've raised issues that I definitely wasn't expecting. I am frustrated by the (lack of) information available on the UK side - it's ludicrous to have to find out that a trip might not be possible/should be abandoned through a frequent flyer forum, and not by reading official guidance.

Coronavirus: Scottish lockdown easing to begin on Friday
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52819189

P.S. Official site (not yet updated about the latest announcement)

Obviously you're closer to the situation than me, but IATA rules indicate Brits are still not allowed (unless residents or partners and arriving from Schengen land) and still say:

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/int...1580226297.htm

No, this was lifted a week or two ago. Here's the information from the German government website:

The federal and state governments have agreed that all persons entering Germany from third countries are required to remain in self-quarantine for two weeks. Third countries are countries outside the European Union (EU). Persons travelling from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are exempt from this requirement, as are persons travelling from EU countries.
https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/f...irus-faqs.html

Interesting. The IATA information was updated less than a week ago and is usually quite accurate, but your link is quite specific.

They may not need to be in quarantine - but it seems they would not be allowed to enter the country at the moment in order to visit family.
https://www.bundespolizei.de/Web/DE/...00317_faq.html
Grundsätzlich liegen in folgenden Fälle keine zwingenden Gründe vor:
Besuch von Verwandten, Bekannten oder Freunden

All of the governments involved are still advising against non-essential travel.

Does anyone know how long it's taking to traverse through the airport at the moment? Unsure how much time it will actually take to get bags dropped and travel through security with current arrangements.

Five minutes maybe? OK, allow ten, but you won't need all of it.

I was at EDI on Monday and must warn that this sign turned out to be highly misleading and, thus, highly disappointing.

So what was open? My daughter is moving next Wednesday and flying from EDI to LHR then taking a car service to her new home in an area with no grocery stores or restaurants open. She would like to grab a sandwich or two at either EDI or LHR to tide her over to a shopping run on Thursday!

You’ll probably already have tried this, but Justeat.com is a good place to get online takeaways delivered. If you go on it at UK evening time, and put her new postcode in, you’ll see what options are available. Most takeaways are open for delivery (though that’s obviously not much good if it’s a very remote area).

Thanks! Yes it looks like she has some options. She was a bit freaked out that Morrisons and M and S don't deliver and Tesco only delivers 2 days a week. She's used to all that being walk able in St Andrews.

At EDI they have expanded the vending machines, there are now 3 of them, 2 soda based, the other water based.

At LHR there is landside a small Boots and W H Smith open in T5, both on the Arrivals level, with a limited range of sandwiches and snack items available. On the Departure level landside there is also a Caffè Nero open. I haven't seen what they are offering yet, but I imagine it's stronger on cookies and the like. So between the 3 venues there should be scope to get something reasonable together. More details in the Covid Heathrow thread in the BA forum. She may be able to persuade the car driver to pull over at a supermarket en route, some of the BP petrol stations in the Heathrow vicinity have M&S mini stores attached.