Indre By is the medieval kernel — crooked streets that predate the grid, canals that were defensive moats before they were pretty, and a density of culture per square meter that exhausts guidebooks. Strøget runs through it as the pedestrian spine, but the real life happens on the side streets: Ved Stranden 10 pouring natural wine canalside, Ruby mixing cocktails in a townhouse so discreet you'll walk past it twice, Torvehallerne anchoring the market ritual at Israels Plads. Rosenborg Castle guards the crown jewels in a garden where students sunbathe beside tourists.
K-Bar and Curfew sharpen the evening with precision drinks in low light. The Round Tower gives a spiral view of copper rooftops that haven't changed silhouette in centuries. This is the Copenhagen you saw in photographs, but what photographs miss is the sound: bicycle bells on cobblestones, the slap of water against canal walls, and the particular quiet of a courtyard discovered through an unmarked archway.
It is dense, expensive, tourist-heavy, and absolutely essential. Start here. Then leave and come back.